By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-17 19:46:54 | Updated at 2026-09-17 20:32:27
1 hour ago
An image from video shows Dr. Terry Adirim, acting assistant defense secretary for Health Affairs, giving an update on COVID-19 at the Pentagon on June 30, 2021. Department of Defense via The Epoch Times
A top former defense official who cleared the way for the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate said in a recent deposition that she learned in early 2021 of heart inflammation appearing in some service members following vaccination, but in the fall of 2021, she recommended the Department of Defense mandate vaccination for service members based on a Food and Drug Administration determination.
Dr. Terry Adirim said during the August deposition, released on Sept. 16, that she learned of potential side effects of the vaccines shortly after joining the Department of Defense during a meeting with doctors from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
She said she did not remember a date, but that the meeting took place in the spring of 2021, and that doctors were concerned because 23 members had been diagnosed with myocarditis, or heart inflammation, following vaccination.
“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 testified. “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.”
Experts have told The Epoch Times that heart inflammation is not mild and frequently involves intensive pain and months of limitations on physical activity. Some people who died after vaccination had heart inflammation named as a cause of death on death certificates, with a subset listing vaccination as causing the myocarditis.
Government officials learned of the post-vaccination heart inflammation in February 2021 but did not alert the public for several months, The Epoch Times previously reported.
Adirim, who declined to comment on the deposition, signed documents that led to the military mandating COVID-19 vaccines in the fall of 2021, including a memorandum that said the military could administer vaccines that received emergency use authorization (EUA), rather than approval.
She said during the deposition, which was recorded as part of her legal case against the government for terminating her, that she knew by the fall of 2021 that myocarditis was caused by the vaccines, but still recommended the defense secretary at the time, Lloyd Austin, mandate vaccination. Adirim said she read studies and trusted the determination by the FDA that the vaccines were safe and effective.
“My understanding is that the risk of COVID far, far away [sic], this very small number of side effects due to the vaccine, that it was causing disruption to our troops being able to perform their national security mission, and that the disease itself was far worse than any of the small number of mostly minor side effects,” she said.
Adirim said that nearly 100 service members had died from COVID-19, and thousands more were hospitalized, while she did not know the exact numbers for members who suffered vaccine side effects.
Feds For Freedom, a group of government workers that has sued the government over its vaccine mandates, released Adirim’s deposition.
“Service members were told they were receiving a licensed vaccine but instead were given EUA vials. For those who legally refused the shot, careers ended. Secretary [Pete] Hegseth has stated that the vaccine mandate was ‘unlawful as implemented,’” Stephanie Weidle, the group’s executive director, said in a statement, adding: “Adirim’s memo was the implementation. An investigation into Adirim is overdue.”
