Login
New documents obtained by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) add to existing evidence that health officials under the Biden administration downplayed COVID-19 vaccine safety risks and delayed warning the public.
“The records provide further evidence of the Biden administration’s awareness of and willingness to downplay the significant safety risks associated with the COVID-19 vaccines,” Johnson told The Defender.
The nearly 2,000 pages of documents reveal that in November 2022, officials at the White House and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) failed to immediately warn the public when vaccine safety surveillance systems detected statistically significant safety signals for ischemic stroke in adults 65 and older who received Pfizer’s COVID-19 booster vaccine.
An ischemic stroke, which can be fatal, happens when a blood clot blocks blood flow to the brain, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Meanwhile, in 2022 and 2023, federal health officials continued to promote the COVID-19 vaccines as safe and effective.
“As safety signals for ischemic stroke appeared, Biden HHS officials continued to urge people to get vaccinated, jeopardizing the health of millions of Americans,” Johnson said.
Documents show over 200 stroke cases in less than a year
The newly released documents are just a fraction of what Johnson has received since January 2025, when he subpoenaed HHS for COVID-19 vaccine safety records and communications about the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I am sharing my preliminary findings to provide HHS and the public with even more evidence of the Biden administration’s unsupported and unyielding devotion to a harmful vaccine at the expense of the public’s health,” Johnson wrote in a March 23 letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Johnson included a detailed timeline of findings from the documents.
According to the timeline, the Vaccine Safety Datalink, run by the CDC and healthcare organizations, first detected a safety signal for ischemic stroke on Nov. 27, 2022, and continued to show a signal for months.
In late December 2022, CDC officials reviewed 53 reports in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) of ischemic stroke, including three deaths, following Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
In January 2023, CDC officials identified over 60 more VAERS reports of ischemic stroke following Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. By February 7, 2023, officials had counted roughly 226 stroke cases in VAERS since August 31, 2022.
Biden White House changes safety signal messaging to minimize concern
The latest documents add to a mounting pile of evidence documenting how Biden-era health officials failed to swiftly alert the public to adverse event risks with the COVID-19 vaccine, including death.
For example, CDC researchers altered their own 2022 study on COVID-19 vaccine adverse events to downplay deaths linked to the shots reported in the first six months of the vaccine rollout, according to documents obtained by Children’s Health Defense (CHD).
A 2022 peer-reviewed study found that CDC officials waited three months after finding a statistically significant safety signal for myocarditis in young males before alerting the public.
The documents obtained by Johnson revealed that the CDC waited roughly two months before drafting a communication plan that mentioned the ischemic stroke safety signal.
In January 2023, the Biden White House edited the CDC’s draft to downplay the issue by suggesting the agency write that the signal was “slightly” elevated, instead of “moderately” elevated.
Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., CHD senior research scientist who analyzed the newly released documents’ safety signal data for ischemic stroke, said the signal was “definitely not just slightly elevated.”
For instance, data from January 2023 revealed that adults 65 and older who received Pfizer’s booster shot had more than double the risk of ischemic stroke compared with those who did not receive the shot.
“It’s horrible that federal officials tried to gloss over this by calling the signal ‘slightly elevated,’” he said.
By failing to alert the public immediately and later downplaying the risk, the CDC denied Americans their right to full informed consent, Jablonowski said.
“To have informed consent, people need to have all the information so they can weigh the risks versus the benefits of a vaccine,” he said.
The Defender is 100% reader-supported. No corporate sponsors. No paywalls. Our writers and editors rely on you to fund stories like this that mainstream media won’t write. 
This article was funded by critical thinkers like you.
Johnson deepens his investigation
Johnson’s office has received “millions” of pages pursuant to the subpoena, a source familiar with the matter told The Defender. “We are undertaking a very serious review of the records,” the individual said.
Still, Johnson told Kennedy that some documents are still outstanding. Johnson requested additional documents, including HHS communications related to how officials tracked and handled ischemic stroke safety signal data.
As chair of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Johnson also asked Kennedy to make the public health officials implicated in the documents available for an interview before the committee.
In February, five organizations led by CHD launched the COVID Justice campaign to demand accountability and ensure the government never again uses a public health emergency to violate Americans’ constitutional rights. Over 32,000 people have so far signed the resolution.
Related articles in The Defender
- CDC Buried COVID Vaccine Death Data in Lancet Study, Internal Documents Reveal
- Breaking: Emails Obtained by CHD Reveal Government’s Failure to Monitor COVID Vaccine Injury Reports
- Johnson Subpoenas HHS for COVID Vaccine Safety Records, Fauci Emails
- ‘This Is Going to Be a Slog’: Senate Hearing on Cover-Up of COVID Vaccine Risks Just the ‘Tip of the Iceberg,’ Johnson Tells Committee
- Multiple Deaths, Thousands of Cardiac Injuries Reported to V-safe, Latest Data Dump Reveals
