Army physician reviews military VAERS reports after appointment at HHS

Theresa Long, an Army physician, has been appointed to review reports of deaths and other adverse events among U.S. service members after Covid vaccination. In a federal deposition on August 14 she said she is examining 2,544 unverified death reports submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Long told the court she was named senior medical military adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and that she also reports to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

VAERS is a passive, public surveillance system that can flag unusual patterns but is not designed to prove cause and effect. Public health authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, use VAERS as an early warning tool and rely on other data sources to confirm a signal. To determine whether a vaccine contributed to a death, investigators must review medical records, death certificates, and, when appropriate, autopsy findings and laboratory results. Long said she has identified 28 deaths she believes may be linked to vaccination, although she declined to give details.

If Long finds evidence that warrants further study, public health agencies will need to perform controlled epidemiologic analyses and publish transparent methods and findings. Such work will take time, and conclusions should be drawn only after careful review of complete clinical data. If investigators cannot confirm a causal link, reports that appear in VAERS will remain signals rather than proof. Long said the review could take about a year, and she described the effort as a re‑examination of military health surveillance during the pandemic.