Sen Ron Johnson says new docs show feds failed to properly warn about COVID vaccine risks

The subcommittee leading the probe into how federal health agencies managed the COVID-19 vaccines concluded in an interim report, based on newly unredacted documents, that health officials were aware of heart inflammation risks associated with mRNA vaccines but delayed notifying the public while downplaying the risks. 

The conclusions, released on Wednesday by GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, will be followed by a hearing on the panel's findings this afternoon. 

The documents were obtained by the subcommittee in response to the Wisconsin senator's Jan. 28 subpoena to the Department of Health and Human Services requesting a slew of records, including un-redacted records about the government’s “awareness” of myocarditis and pericarditis cases—cardiac conditions—in vaccine recipients. Many of these memos were previously released through Freedom of Information Act requests, but were heavily redacted by the Biden administration. 

“Records produced pursuant to the subpoena reveal the following: in the first half of 2021, federal health officials had ample evidence of myocarditis and related heart inflammation conditions occurring in young adults who received mRNA COVID-19 vaccines,” the subcommittee said in a press release. 

You can read the report below: 

Beginning in February 2021, federal health officials were notified by Israeli officials of reports that individuals were experiencing heart inflammation after receiving the vaccine. 

For the following three months, the documents show officials continued to receive warnings about the danger, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin drafting an official notice for healthcare providers. During this time, the federal vaccine safety monitoring system showed a safety signal for inflammation in young adults who had received the vaccine. 

However, “Within days of the safety signal, the top ranking official at the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), then-Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock, pushed back on the CDC’s plan to formally notify healthcare providers, ultimately resulting in the formal notification being rejected in favor of a posting on CDC’s website,” the subcommittee said. 

Senator Johnson announced that a hearing to address the interim report and the documents obtained by the subcommittee would take place at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday.