Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) sent a letter to the Joe Biden administration Tuesday, pressing them on their efforts to monitor adverse effects to the coronavirus vaccines, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.
Johnson sent the letter to National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock, asking about the agencies’ efforts to monitor and report about adverse reactions to the coronavirus vaccines through the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
In his letter, Johnson noted that VAERS has recorded, in less than seven months, over 400,000 adverse events. This is 15 times greater than the weekly average prior to the coronavirus. Johnson noted that although the VAERS data does not prove causality, the VAERS statistics should be taken seriously. The senator wrote:
In October 2020, prior to any vaccine receiving an EUA, your agencies were expressing and conveying a great deal of confidence in your early warning vaccine safety systems like VAERS. Both CDC and FDA included VAERS as one of the primary passive surveillance tools for monitoring COVID-19 vaccine safety. CDC highlighted that VAERS covered the entire U.S. population and its ability to ‘rapidly detect safety signals’ and ‘detect rare adverse events.’ Now, nine months and 438,441 reported adverse events later, health care professionals are publicly downplaying the effectiveness and validity of these same systems. For example, on May 3, 2021, Dr. Paul Offit, who is a member of an FDA advisory committee, stated ‘So [VAERS is] a noisy system that frankly is more frightening than helpful.’ Which is it?
With the inclusion of foreign adverse events, VAERS is reporting 9,048 deaths, 26,818 hospitalizations, 56,915 emergency room visits, and 438,441 total reports. Those adverse events have been recorded over a time span of 29 weeks for an average of 15,000 per week – 15 times the weekly average prior to the COVID-19 vaccines.
An Economist/YouGov poll found recently that roughly a quarter of Americans had a “negative reaction” to the coronavirus vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) added a warning label to the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine over links to a rare neurological condition.
Johnson noted that he held a press conference with five women and one 13-year-old who suffered adverse effects with the coronavirus vaccine. He wrote:
One of the women had participated in the AstraZeneca clinical trials and the 13-year-old participated in the 15-year-old Pfizer clinical trial. As a requirement for trial participation, they were both healthy prior to vaccination. Their neurological injuries have been significant. At the time of the event, membership of their Facebook support groups totaled more than 2,000 individuals who suffered from similar post-vaccination neurological injuries. Within a few days of the press event, their group size had grown close to 5,000 members.
Big tech social media platforms subsequently censored their stories.
Twitter has described one mother’s description of her daughter’s adverse effects to the coronavirus vaccine as “misleading.” Facebook has also censored private groups and individuals posts about Americans’ alleged adverse effects with the coronavirus vaccine.
Johnson also wrote that many of these agencies have delivered contradictory statements about the efficacy of VAERS; he contended that these contradictions would lead to less trust in the government agencies. He said:
It is precisely these kind of contradictory statements and attitudes that have eroded the public’s confidence in your agencies’ pronouncements and recommendations. Full disclosure, honesty and transparency will be the only way to regain your credibility and restore the public’s confidence in your agencies.
Johnson called for the CDC, NIH, and the FDA to hold a public hearing ton he adverse effects of the coronavirus vaccines.
He wrote, “The hearing should discuss the rate at which Americans are experiencing severe adverse events, such as hospitalization or death, the proximity between occurrence of a severe adverse event and vaccination, and what risk mitigation measures are being put in place to make the vaccination program safer for our country.”
2021.07.13 Sen. Johnson to CDC, NIH, FDA Re Vaccine Safety Monitoring (1) by Breitbart News on Scribd
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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