Were military vaccine injuries hidden?

Theresa Long, an anti-vaccine doctor, says Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appointed her to serve as the senior military medical adviser to RFK Jr. She is reviewing military health records for possible vaccine injuries or deaths.

• VAERS reports and investigations do not prove that vaccines caused deaths or that officials hid evidence.
• Faulty data made it look like some military health problems had increased sharply after vaccination.
• Military studies found that serious vaccine reactions were rare and COVID infection carried greater health risks.

Opening an investigation does not prove that the vaccines caused these problems or that the government concealed them.

Long says she is reviewing 2,544 reports of deaths involving service members that were submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS. But VAERS is an early warning system—not a list of confirmed vaccine injuries. Anyone can submit a report, and the event does not have to be proven to have been caused by a vaccine. A report means that something happened after vaccination, not necessarily because of it. Medical records, autopsy findings, other possible causes, and normal death rates must be studied before researchers can decide whether a vaccine was responsible. The official VAERS guide warns against using reports alone to prove cause and effect.

Long also told a court that she knew of 28 people who died because of COVID vaccines. However, she did not provide the medical evidence needed to support that statement. Without records showing what happened in each case, the claim cannot be verified.

Long was right that, in very rare cases, mRNA COVID shots can cause myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle. Pericarditis, or inflammation of the lining around the heart, can also occur. These conditions have been seen most often in adolescent and young adult men. But COVID infection also raises the risk of myocarditis and many other heart problems.

The difference was clear in the military’s own data. A March 2026 Defense Department report found that the risk of myocarditis during the first 21 days was higher after infection than after vaccination. The increase after vaccination was smaller and did not continue beyond that short risk period.

Long’s earlier claims about large increases in other health problems came from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database, or DMED. DMED tracks broad health trends in the military, including hospital visits, clinic visits, diseases, and other medical events.

The Defense Department found that a computer error had caused DMED to leave out about 90% of certain medical visits from 2016 through 2020. Because the 2021 information was more complete, comparing it with the incorrect earlier numbers made it look as though health problems had suddenly increased. The department corrected the error and added new checks to prevent it from happening again. The change raised the older numbers to their proper levels; it was not evidence that officials changed accurate data to make the vaccines look safer.

DMED also counts medical visits, not just newly diagnosed illnesses. One person may have several visits for the same condition, and some visits may involve screenings, follow-up care, or coding mistakes. For that reason, DMED can help researchers spot questions that deserve study, but its basic searches cannot prove that vaccination caused a health problem.

The Defense Department later conducted a more detailed study of 18 possible health problems. It found a small, short-term increase in myocarditis and pericarditis after vaccination. Eight other conditions went down during their expected risk periods, and seven showed no meaningful connection to vaccination. After COVID infection, however, 14 of 17 conditions increased. For 16 of the 17 conditions, rates were higher after infection than after vaccination.

Kennedy has called COVID vaccines the “most deadly vaccines in history,” but the evidence does not support that description. The military’s investigation found that serious vaccine reactions were rare and that COVID infection carried greater health risks. A separate study of more than two million vaccinated people also found no pattern suggesting that COVID vaccination increased the overall risk of death.

People can debate whether the military should have required COVID vaccination. But disagreement with the requirement is not evidence that the vaccines killed thousands of service members or that officials covered up widespread harm.