A former defense official linked with the military’s previous COVID-19 vaccine mandate said that she learned that the inoculation was linked to heart inflammation in early 2021.
Dr. Terry Adirim, formerly the acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, said in a recently-released deposition dated to August 2026 that soon after she arrived at the Department of Defense, she “met with a group of doctors from Walter Reed Hospital that expressed concerns about a small number of service members who had myocarditis” in spring of 2021.
“It was five years ago, but what I recall is that they were reporting to me and members of my staff that they had noted a signal,” Adirim explained. “There were service members, young males in their early 20s, who had myocarditis. I recall them saying that it was after the second dose and there were mild cases of myocarditis. I do recall them saying that it was after the second dose and there were mild cases of myocarditis.”
When asked if she knew if myocarditis was related to the COVID-19 vaccine by September of 2021, Adirim said, “Yes.” Despite knowing the risk, she recommended the mandate.
In a separate memo from her time at the Defense Department, Adirim said the emergency-use COVID-19 vaccine was “interchangeable” with the Comirnaty vaccine, another COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech.
Adirim described her duties in the Defense Department as an “oversight role over health services policy” and later as “acting assistant secretary.” She later went on to join the CIA but was removed from her position in 2025, with some believing her links to the vaccine mandate were cause for her termination.
