Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have enlisted an Army doctor to investigate whether COVID-19 vaccines contributed to the deaths of U.S. service members, according to newly revealed court testimony.
Dr. Theresa Long, an Army physician who is certified in aerospace medicine and holds a master’s degree in public health, told a federal court in an August deposition that Hegseth appointed her as Kennedy’s senior medical military adviser. Long’s testimony was first reported by Politico on Thursday, which obtained the deposition from an ongoing federal lawsuit involving former Defense Department health official Terry Adirim.
Long is examining 2,544 reported but unverified deaths among service members that were submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) to determine whether they were caused by COVID vaccination.
Long said Kennedy and Hegseth tasked her with investigating the military’s health surveillance system during the pandemic as well as two military medical databases. She told the court that she hoped to complete her research into potential vaccine complications “within a year.”
Long also testified that she personally knows of 28 people who died because of the COVID vaccine, though she said she was not permitted to provide additional details about those cases. The investigation comes as the Trump administration has taken a series of steps to revisit the Biden administration’s COVID vaccine mandate for members of the armed forces.
Hegseth established the COVID-19 Reinstatement and Reconciliation Task Force in May to assist service members who were removed from the military over the vaccine requirement and seek to return. The Pentagon said nearly 170 service members had been reinstated or re-accessed as of April, while more than 800 additional former service members had expressed interest in returning.
The Department of War has also conducted its own studies examining health conditions among active-duty personnel following COVID vaccination. A March 2026 Pentagon report found that myocarditis and pericarditis increased in the short term following vaccination, but said the increase was not sustained over a one-year period. The report also found that the increase was small compared with rates following COVID infection. Myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, has been identified as a rare adverse event associated with mRNA COVID vaccines, particularly among younger males.
Long, however, has questioned some of the military’s underlying health data and told the court she was reviewing it again as part of her assignment. The 2,544 deaths under examination come from VAERS, which is designed as an early-warning system for possible vaccine safety problems. The database accepts reports of health problems occurring after vaccination, including reports in which the person submitting the information is uncertain whether the vaccine caused the event.
The Biden administration’s military vaccine mandate required service members to receive the COVID vaccine, and the Pentagon ultimately discharged more than 8,000 troops who refused the shots before Congress required the Department of Defense to rescind the mandate in 2022.
Kennedy has repeatedly criticized the mandate and argued that requiring service members to receive the COVID vaccine violated their rights.
Now, Long’s investigation will examine the health records and military surveillance data surrounding the vaccine’s use among service members, including whether some deaths previously reported after vaccination can be tied to the shots themselves.
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