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Politico revealed Kennedy and Hegseth had installed vaccine-skeptic Army doctor at HHS to probe vaccine deaths, a theory Pentagon data contradicted

Politico reported on September 3, 2026 that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had installed Army physician Col. Theresa Long inside HHS in Washington, D.C. as Kennedy's previously undisclosed "senior medical military adviser," tasked with investigating whether COVID-19 vaccines caused the deaths of 2,544 service members. Long, a long-standing vaccine skeptic, testified in an August 14, 2026 deposition that she is pursuing the claim even though a 2026 Pentagon report found no vaccine-linked deaths and only a short-term, non-sustained rise in heart-inflammation cases after vaccination. Kennedy has repeatedly called the vaccines "the most deadly vaccines in history," a characterization public health experts say is false.

Jurisdiction
Federal
Location
Washington, D.C.

Abuses documented

Actors

On September 3, 2026, Politico reported that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had installed Army physician Col. Theresa Long inside HHS as Kennedy's "senior medical military adviser" -- a role that had not been previously disclosed. Long revealed the assignment in an August 14, 2026 deposition given in an unrelated federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of Virginia, where she appeared in support of a defendant being sued by a former Pentagon health official over that official's 2021 firing. Hegseth detailed Long, who is board-certified in aerospace medicine, to investigate whether COVID-19 vaccines caused 2,544 unverified deaths among service members reported to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Long testified she expects to finish the review within a year and said she is aware of 28 deaths she attributes to the vaccine but was barred from discussing further.

Long has a documented history of opposing the vaccines that predates her HHS assignment: she submitted an affidavit in 2021 litigation challenging the Pentagon's vaccine mandate and has publicly called for grounding vaccinated military pilots. Kennedy, a longtime vaccine-safety skeptic, has repeatedly called COVID-19 vaccines "the most deadly vaccines in history" -- a characterization public health experts say is false and warn has discouraged some Americans from vaccination. A 2026 Pentagon report examining health outcomes among vaccinated service members found that myocarditis and pericarditis cases rose briefly after vaccination but that the effect was "not sustained over a 1-year period," and it identified no vaccine-linked deaths -- directly at odds with the premise of the investigation Kennedy and Hegseth assigned Long to conduct.

Asked by Politico about Long's role, the Defense Department said it had "nothing to announce at this time" and pointed to an unrelated May 2026 statement about reinstating troops who were discharged for refusing the vaccine mandate; HHS and Long did not respond to requests for comment.

Why we recorded this

Congress and long practice have treated military medical science as insulated from day-to-day politics because doctors are supposed to follow evidence, not a conclusion set in advance by the officials who appointed them. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has publicly called COVID-19 vaccines "the most deadly vaccines in history," and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth installed Army physician Theresa Long — a vaccine skeptic with a documented history of opposing the shots before her appointment — as Kennedy's senior medical adviser to investigate whether those vaccines killed thousands of service members, a claim the government's own 2026 Pentagon study had already found no evidence for. Installing an ally who shares the desired conclusion, rather than an independent reviewer, is how political control captures a scientific process before its findings can even be produced.

Sources

  1. RFK Jr. is investigating whether troops died of Covid vaccine, Army doctor says — Politico primary accessed September 4, 2026
  2. Pentagon, HHS examine possible link between COVID vaccines and military deaths — APA (Azerbaijan) secondary accessed September 4, 2026
  3. RFK Jr. and Pete Hegseth plant Army doctor at HHS to chase a COVID vaccine theory: report — Raw Story secondary accessed September 4, 2026

See also