Sen. Ron Johnson, R-W.I., released a damning 55-page report Wednesday accusing Biden administration health officials of deliberately downplaying and delaying warnings about heart inflammation risks from COVID-19 vaccines.
The Wisconsin Republican, who chairs the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, obtained 2,473 pages of internal government records through a subpoena to the Department of Health and Human Services after years of reported stonewalling by the previous administration.
“Based on the subpoenaed records the Subcommittee has received to date, as well as public FOIA documents, this interim report will highlight records and present a timeline showing U.S. health officials knew about the risk of myocarditis; those officials downplayed the health concern; and U.S. health agencies delayed informing the public about the risk of the adverse event,” Johnson’s report states.
The documents reveal that federal health agencies knew about myocarditis risks months before warning the public. Israeli Ministry of Health officials notified the CDC in February 2021 about “large reports of myocarditis, particularly in young people, following the administration of the Pfizer vaccine.”
By April 2021, CDC officials were discussing “safety signals” for myocarditis with mRNA vaccines based on Defense Department and Israeli data but “still not taking immediate steps to warn the public.”
Internal meeting notes from late May 2021 show health officials asking “Is VAERS signaling for myopericarditis now?” with the answer being “For the age groups 16-17 years and 18-24 years, yes.”
Despite this knowledge, health agencies chose not to issue a formal Health Alert Network message, which the CDC describes as its “primary method of sharing cleared information about urgent public health incidents” with medical practitioners nationwide.
Instead, according to Johnson’s report, CDC and FDA officials “ultimately decided against issuing a formal HAN and, instead, posted ‘clinical considerations’ on CDC’s website about myocarditis.”
Dr. Jordan Vaughn, who testified at Wednesday’s hearing, criticized this decision during his Capitol Hill appearance.
“Literally the job of the FDA. The job of CDC is to actually regulate our products and inform practitioners and people about the dangers that they might see as soon as they see them,” Vaughn said. “That health alert notice would’ve told physicians to be on the lookout for this because this is happening.”
The Biden administration didn’t update vaccine labels until late June 2021, months after becoming aware of the heart inflammation risks. Johnson’s report claims this delay “jeopardized the health of young Americans.”
“Rather than provide the public and health care providers with immediate and transparent information regarding the risk of myocarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, the Biden administration waited until late June 2021 to announce changes to the labels for the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines,” the report states.
Johnson has been fighting for these records since 2021, sending more than 70 oversight letters that were “either completely ignored or inadequately addressed” by the Biden administration. Only after the Trump administration took control of HHS did the department begin producing the subpoenaed documents.
The VAERS data cited in Johnson’s report shows troubling patterns. As of April 25, the system recorded 38,607 deaths and more than 1.6 million adverse events worldwide associated with COVID-19 vaccines. Twenty-five percent of the reported deaths occurred within three days of injection.
By comparison, the report notes that only 2,663 deaths were reported to VAERS in connection with flu vaccines over a 35-year period.
“No other reports of adverse events associated with any other drug or vaccine even come close to these statistics,” Johnson’s report states. “And yet, those who oversaw the development and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines continue to insist it is safe and effective, without providing the data to prove their claims.”
Vaughn, who serves as president of the Microvascular Research Foundation, argued during his testimony that the mRNA vaccine technology has some problems.
“The mRNA was a technology that… had lots of holdups and actually a lot of those holdups are the very adverse events and adverse effects that we’re seeing,” he said.
The doctor criticized federal agencies for simply updating their website instead of issuing proper medical alerts.
“Instead of actually giving a health alert notice to all the physicians, they decided with the help of the Biden administration to actually just update the website of the CDC,” Vaughn testified.
Johnson’s investigation included testimony from multiple medical professionals critical of vaccine safety protocols, including Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. James Thorp, Dr. Joel Wallskog, attorney Aaron Siri, and Hawaii Governor Josh Green.
The Senate report demands full disclosure of what it characterizes as the Biden administration’s systematic effort to hide vaccine risks from the American people.
“The American people fund the federal health departments and agencies with their hardearned tax dollars,” the report states. “The information developed by these departments and agencies belong to the American people, and should be made fully and transparently available.”
Johnson pledged to continue investigating as more previously hidden documents become available under the Trump administration.
“The roadblocks are removed and more documents that have been hidden and withheld for years become available, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will provide transparency and let the American public see what is their right to see.”