Pentagon, HHS Investigating Whether COVID Vaccines Contributed to Military Deaths
The Trump administration is investigating whether COVID-19 vaccines contributed to the deaths of U.S. service members following the Biden administration’s military vaccine mandate, according to testimony from an Army doctor assigned to the effort.
Army physician Theresa Long said in an Aug. 14 federal court deposition that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth detailed her to serve as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s senior medical military adviser.
Long said she is examining 2,544 unverified reports of deaths among service members submitted to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, following COVID vaccination.
VAERS is an early-warning surveillance system that accepts reports of health problems occurring after vaccination. A report does not establish that a vaccine caused the medical event or death.
Long, who is board certified in aerospace medicine and holds a master’s degree in public health, said she hopes to complete her investigation within a year.
She also testified that she knows of 28 people who died because of COVID vaccines but said she was not permitted to provide additional information supporting that assertion.
The investigation comes as the Trump administration reexamines the military’s handling of the COVID pandemic and the Biden administration’s 2021 vaccine mandate.
Nearly 9,000 service members were discharged for refusing COVID vaccinations before Congress ordered the Pentagon to rescind the mandate in 2022. The Defense Department has since established a COVID-19 Reinstatement and Reconciliation Task Force to assist troops who left the military over the requirement and want to return.
“The Department continues to right the wrongs of the past and to restore confidence in, and honor to, our fighting force,” the Pentagon said in announcing the task force.
Long is also reviewing military health surveillance systems and two medical databases from the pandemic period.
A 2026 Pentagon report found an increase in myocarditis and pericarditis among active-duty service members shortly after COVID vaccination, but said the increase was not sustained over one year. The report did not identify vaccine-related deaths.
The FDA has also required updated warnings for mRNA COVID vaccines concerning myocarditis and pericarditis. The agency reported a higher incidence among young men, with 27 cases per million vaccinations compared with 8 per million in the general population for the period it analyzed.
Long’s previously undisclosed assignment indicates that the Trump administration’s review of the Biden-era military vaccine mandate now extends beyond reinstating discharged troops to examining whether the vaccines themselves caused serious injuries or deaths among service members.
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