2026-07-072026-07-07http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/201119We reconsider the consistency constraints on a free massless symmetric, rank 2, tensor field in a background and confirm that they uniquely require it to be the linear deviation about (cosmological) Einstein gravity. Neither adding non-minimal higher derivative terms nor changing the gauge transformations by allowing terms non-analytic in the cosmological constant alters this fact.5 pages - Minor misprints corrected - Version accepted by Class. Quant. GravGeneral Relativity and Quantum CosmologyAstrophysicsHigh Energy Physics - Theorytext