The military’s use of remdesivir to treat COVID-19 caused the deaths of at least 600 service members, according to the recently released “Remdesivir Papers.”
For one former service member, it was a sign that “the military has lost its way.”
Brad Miller, a former lieutenant colonel with the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army — and a founding member of the Children’s Health Defense (CHD) Military Chapter — was able to review “The Remdesivir Papers” before their release on Oct. 4.
He joined “The Defender In-Depth” this week to discuss the papers’ revelations.
Miller left the military after 19 years of service after deciding not to comply with its COVID-19 vaccine mandate. He told “The Defender In-Depth” that current military leadership “led this institution into disarray” when it caved to financial and political pressure to administer the controversial antiviral drug remdesivir — despite its known risks — to “a captive population.”
According to Miller, “The Remdesivir Papers” reveal “some collusion” in early 2020 between the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He said the military’s collusion with other government agencies “served as an indicator of what would happen across the wider society shortly thereafter.”
Miller said he was offered the opportunity to review “The Remdesivir Papers” before their publication by the anonymous military whistleblower who later released them. The whistleblower was aware of Miller’s “personal skepticism” about a lot of the stories that came out of the DOD regarding COVID-19.
“I think what people will immediately see … is there’s more to just the entire COVID-19 situation than just the lockdowns or the potential problems — either medical or legal — with the COVID shot mandates.”
Miller said:
“What ‘The Remdesivir Papers’ do is allow us to kind of open our aperture and realize that what happened over the last couple of years is bigger than just lockdowns. It’s bigger than just COVID shots.
“There were other things that were just as problematic, like the widespread use of remdesivir as an ostensible treatment protocol for those that ostensibly had COVID-19.”
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64% death rate among service members who got remdesivir
Miller told “The Defender In-Depth” that while “The Remdesivir Papers” contained many shocking revelations, what didn’t surprise him was the DOD’s silence concerning the deaths of hundreds of military service members who were administered remdesivir as a treatment for COVID-19.
“From March 2020 to March 2024, a significant number of people in the wider military community were administered remdesivir,” Miller said. “Of those 941 individuals that were administered remdesivir, 601 of them died. That’s a death rate of 64%.”
“What caused their deaths?” Miller asked. “Was it the remdesivir directly? Were there other factors? Shouldn’t we know? Shouldn’t we at least be asking questions? Can we trust that the DOD has been forthcoming with this information?”
Miller said the military used remdesivir despite faulty clinical trials for which, in some cases, data still have not been publicly revealed. Five of these trials are detailed in “The Remdesivir Papers.”
For Miller, four of these trials — sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the leadership of Dr. Anthony Fauci — raise questions about the trials’ methodology.
“A critical observer might look at the information … and may come away with some questions and might even ask themselves, ‘Hey, was some of this done in a way to skew the results that might present remdesivir as a possible treatment protocol in a more favorable light than it perhaps deserved?’”
“The Remdesivir Papers” also cited a fifth clinical trial, sponsored by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command. “We know that trial was conducted — however, there is no publicly available information about the findings of that clinical trial,” Miller said.
According to Miller, these five trials, which purported to examine remdesivir’s efficacy against coronaviruses such as COVID-19, were conducted despite evidence that the drug was potentially dangerous.
Remdesivir “had to be discontinued because it was so lethal for Ebola patients,” Miller said, referring to the outcome of a 2018 study in Africa where 53.1% of patients who received remdesivir as a treatment for Ebola died. “Now, fast forward just a couple of years, and we are administering this to our troops.”
Did DOD attempt to ‘paint remdesivir in a positive light’?
Miller also told “The Defender In-Depth” that clinical trial participants and service members did not receive informed consent before being given remdesivir.
“Were individuals who participated in these trials, specifically this one trial for the DOD, made aware of some of these significant potentialities that could occur through the administration of remdesivir?” Miller asked. “Were they made aware that death itself is a potential outcome of the use of remdesivir?”
For Miller, the military’s apparent readiness to administer a risky drug like remdesivir to its service members is based partly on a perspective that views members of the military as “somewhat of a captive population.”
“The military can get away legally with using some things experimentally,” particularly in response to an emergency, Miller said.
“Was there an attempt to … paint remdesivir in a positive light by saying, ‘We are using this on our military troops and therefore it is safe?” Miller asked. “Perhaps the narrative could be created that this is therefore safe to be used on the wider public.”
For Miller, this — along with financial interests — helped lead to Fauci’s declaration in 2020 that remdesivir would become the “standard of care” for treating COVID-19.
“Once it becomes the standard of care, then, of course, insurance companies can’t deny it, and doctors, of course, can be sued for malpractice for not using remdesivir,” Miller said. He noted the drug “is roughly 1,000 times more expensive to be used as a therapeutic than another therapeutic like ivermectin.”
Miller said he’s not surprised the DOD hasn’t responded to or commented publicly on “The Remdesivir Papers.” It will likely “choose to ignore and hope that these topics will go away on their own,” he said.
“What I think is incumbent upon us is to ensure that these topics don’t go away on their own and that we continue to beat the drum,” Miller said. “We’ve got to make ourselves unignorable … there have to be enough of us jumping up and down and screaming to DOD, ‘We know what you did.’”
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