Sen. Ron Johnson said newly disclosed records show the Biden administration failed to promptly warn the public about a potential COVID-19 vaccine risk, detailing the findings in a March 25 letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Johnson, chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, wrote that federal vaccine safety systems detected a statistically significant signal for ischemic stroke among individuals 65 and older following the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent booster as early as November 2022. Internal documents indicate that, rather than issuing a public warning, officials moved in December 2022 to increase booster uptake among that age group.
A January 2023 draft communications plan from the CDC and FDA, which included edits from the White House, downplayed the signal by revising language from “moderately elevated” to “slightly elevated,” while federal health officials publicly maintained no change to vaccination guidance. At the same time, internal efforts, including a “Stroke Project,” were launched to further study the risk, continuing into 2025.
Johnson said that key details about the government’s awareness of the stroke signal remain incomplete. The release includes nearly 2,000 pages of HHS documents, along with internal communications acknowledging limitations in detecting vaccine safety signals.
Read Johnson’s Letter to RFK jr.
