Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay
September 10, 2023 - WASHINGTON – Last week, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a letter to Robert Califf, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), regarding the agency’s refusal to provide the senator’s office with data relating to the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines.
Since June 2022, the senator has sought the COVID-19 vaccine safety data described in the Jan. 29, 2021 Standard Operating Procedure document, which detailed the types of data analyses the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and FDA would compile.
In March 2023, the senator’s office requested FDA provide certain vaccine safety data—called empirical Bayesian data mining analyses—after learning from CDC that only FDA could provide this information. However, in June 2023, FDA finally responded to these requests and refused to provide any of its vaccine safety data.
Sen. Johnson wrote, “FDA’s intentional withholding of information relating to the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines is outrageous and shows a complete disregard for the health and safety of the American people.”
“The notion that FDA is actively hiding information about vaccine safety signals from Congress and the American people is beyond despicable, particularly given the fact that COVID-19 vaccine adverse events can and do occur,” the senator added.
Senator Johnson’s previous requests to CDC for its vaccine safety data can be found here:
The senator’s Sept. 5, 2023 letter to FDA can be found here.
Source: Senator Ron Johnson
