Milwaukee City Wire

On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin, who serves as the ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, urged key health agencies to preserve all records related to COVID-19 vaccines. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were specifically addressed in his request.

Senator Johnson expressed concerns about these agencies' refusal to provide complete documents in response to his oversight inquiries during the Biden administration. He stated that this lack of transparency is hindering Congressional oversight and potentially jeopardizing public health.

"In addition to hiding relevant information from Congress, your agencies have applied heavy redactions to public documents released under Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. These redactions have made many of these public documents hard to understand and, in countless instances, impossible to read," he wrote.

The letter pointed out examples from May 2021 involving communications about myocarditis and pericarditis that remain concealed by U.S. public health agencies. Among the documents identified by Senator Johnson are a Pfizer report on myocarditis and pericarditis, CDC discussions on issuing a health alert about myocarditis, and talking points sent by the Biden White House to former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, and former National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins.

Senator Johnson has requested that HHS, FDA, and CDC provide these documents without redactions by December 3, 2024.

He further warned that "[w]hile your agencies have largely ignored or failed to fully cooperate with my oversight efforts, I can assure you that your obstruction will soon come to an end. In the next Congress when I become chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations any attempt by your agencies to withhold documents will be met with a subpoena."

The full text of Senator Johnson's letter is available online.