by Ireland Owens
An Army doctor said she is teaming up with the Trump administration to investigate whether U.S. service members died from COVID-19 vaccines after a Biden-era mandate, Politico first reported Thursday.
Dr. Theresa Long told a Virginia federal court that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth selected her to be Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s senior medical military adviser, Politico reported, citing an Aug. 14 deposition. Long stated that she is probing whether 2,544 unverified deaths among troops reported to HHS’ Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) resulted from COVID-19 vaccines, according to the outlet.
Long also told the court in the deposition that she is seeking to complete her research about potential vaccine-related health complications “within a year,” Politico reported.
The Pentagon referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to the HHS when asked for comment. The HHS did not immediately respond to the DCNF. Long could not immediately be reached for comment.
When reached for comment, the Department of War told Politico that it does not “have anything to announce at this time” regarding Long’s role as Kennedy’s senior medical military adviser and referred the outlet to a May 8 statement.
The Pentagon “continues to take decisive action in support of the many Service members adversely impacted by the COVID-19 vaccine mandate,” the statement says in part.
“The Department continues to welcome back former Service members who were separated solely for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine. As of April 2026, nearly 170 warfighters have been reinstated or re-accessed, and the Military Departments are actively tracking more than 800 additional warriors who have expressed interest in returning to service. Individuals now have until April 1, 2027, to take advantage of Department policies on reinstatement with a two-year service commitment,” the statement notes.
“The Department continues to right the wrongs of the past and to restore confidence in, and honor to, our fighting force,” it adds.
Kennedy has previously criticized vaccines and also pledged to “end covid vaccine mandates” in the U.S. Moreover, Kennedy stated in an August 2025 X post that his “job” as health secretary is to “restore trust in the vaccine program so that parents know we’re telling them the truth.”
Hegseth previously blasted the U.S. military’s flu vaccine requirement as an “absurd, overreaching mandate,” NPR reported in June.
In January 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to reinstate U.S. service members who were discharged under the military’s COVID vaccine mandate.
“On August 24, 2021, the Secretary of Defense mandated that all service members receive the COVID-19 vaccine,” according to the order. “The Secretary of Defense later rescinded the mandate on January 10, 2023. The vaccine mandate was an unfair, overbroad and completely unnecessary burden on our service members. Further, the military unjustly discharged those who refused the vaccine, regardless of the years of service given to our Nation, after failing to grant many of them an exemption that they should have received.”
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Ireland Owens is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network and contributed to this story.
