An Army doctor is now digging through more than 2,500 reported troop deaths that surfaced after service members got COVID-19 vaccines under a mandate many were forced to take.
Story Snapshot
- Army Lt. Col. Theresa Long told a federal court she is reviewing 2,544 unverified death reports tied to COVID-19 vaccination among service members.
- Long says she is also examining roughly 55,000 adverse-event reports connected to the shots.
- Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth assigned Long to lead the review, according to her deposition.
- Federal health data show reports alone do not prove a vaccine caused a death, and prior CDC reviews found no broad causal link.
Doctor’s Court Testimony Reveals Scope of Review
Long made the disclosure in an August 14 deposition filed in a Virginia federal court. She said Hegseth assigned her to serve as Kennedy’s senior medical military adviser and put her in charge of investigating the reported deaths. She testified she is checking whether the 2,544 deaths, all logged in the government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, were actually caused by the shots.
Long’s review does not stop at deaths. She told the court she is also combing through about 55,000 adverse-event reports tied to COVID-19 vaccination among troops. Some outlets reported she believes at least 28 of the deaths were directly caused by the vaccines, though that figure has not been independently confirmed through medical review.
Whistleblower’s History With Vaccine Concerns
Long is not new to this fight. She first raised alarms as an Army flight surgeon, saying she pushed to ground pilots showing possible heart symptoms after vaccination and was ignored by commanders. She filed her concerns under the Military Whistleblower Protection Act years before this appointment. Critics, including a Defense Health Agency spokesman, have said she previously misread pandemic-era medical data on pilots.
Advisory.com’s reporting on the deposition notes that Long has no specialized training in vaccine science or virology, a detail her critics point to when questioning her conclusions. Supporters counter that her clinical role gave her direct access to service members reporting symptoms, which is why Kennedy and Hegseth picked her to lead the probe.
What VAERS Reports Can and Cannot Prove
The reporting system at the center of this story, VAERS, accepts any report of a health problem after vaccination without requiring proof the shot caused it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says plainly that a VAERS report by itself does not show a vaccine caused an event, and the raw numbers cannot answer that question on their own.
Fact-checkers have repeatedly made the same point about past VAERS death totals. Reuters reviewed similar claims of thousands of vaccine-linked deaths and found the reports do not prove the vaccine caused them. A separate scientific review found CDC checks turned up no evidence tying deaths to the vaccines, except for a small number of cases involving a rare clotting disorder linked to one specific shot.
Political Context: Hegseth’s Reversal on Military Vaccine Mandates
This investigation lands amid a broader pullback of military vaccine rules under the current administration. Hegseth already ended the mandatory annual flu vaccine for troops this year, framing it as restoring personal freedom over medical mandates. He earlier declared the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate unlawful, a reversal that resonated with troops who were separated or punished for refusing the shot during the mandate years.
For families who lost loved ones and believe the mandate played a role, this review offers the first real chance at answers from inside the government. For public health officials who spent years explaining the limits of passive reporting systems, it raises worry that unverified numbers could be treated as confirmed facts before any medical review is complete. Both sides agree on one thing: troops deserve a straight answer, not a political fight.
Sources:
military.com, politico.com, tasnimnews.ir, advisory.com, fakti.bg, thegatewaypundit.com
