FDA Officials Ordered Scientist to Stop Reporting COVID Vaccine Safety Signals

Clear Facts

• FDA scientist Dr. Ana Szarfman identified nearly 50 instances of “extreme masking” that concealed approximately 20-25 statistically significant safety signals for COVID vaccine adverse effects including sudden cardiac death, Bell’s palsy, and pulmonary infarction
• Senior FDA officials told Dr. Szarfman to stop her data analyses after she repeatedly shared findings throughout early 2021, with one official warning the data could “feed into anti-vaccination rhetoric”
• Senator Ron Johnson’s investigation revealed Biden administration health officials largely ignored VAERS safety signals during the height of vaccine promotion efforts

The Biden administration’s aggressive promotion of COVID vaccines to every American may have come at the cost of transparent safety monitoring. A new Senate investigation reveals troubling evidence that federal health officials deliberately suppressed important safety data.

Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) released a report last week exposing how Biden administration officials at the FDA may have intentionally ignored critical vaccine safety signals. The investigation by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations uncovered internal communications showing a pattern of dismissal and suppression.

At the center of the controversy is Dr. Ana Szarfman, a senior medical officer and safety data mining developer at the Food and Drug Administration. Using updated data analysis techniques, Dr. Szarfman identified dozens of statistically significant safety signals for adverse events associated with COVID-19 vaccines.

Dr. Szarfman immediately shared her findings with FDA officials responsible for COVID-19 vaccine safety surveillance. The response from her superiors was not what Americans would expect from agencies tasked with protecting public health.

According to Johnson’s report, those officials “largely ignored her and eventually told her to stop her data analyses.”

The findings were significant. Dr. Szarfman discovered nearly 50 examples of “extreme masking” in the data — a phenomenon where one very common signal makes others harder to detect. Working with Dr. William DuMouchel, then chief statistician at Oracle and inventor of the data mining algorithm used by the FDA, she found this masking had covered up roughly 20-25 statistically significant safety signals.

These adverse effects had not been previously detected by the FDA. They included sudden cardiac death, Bell’s palsy, and pulmonary infarction.

Throughout early 2021, as the Biden administration rolled out sweeping vaccine mandates and recommendations, Dr. Szarfman continued sharing updated findings of similar safety signals. The timeline is critical — this was precisely when Americans were being told the vaccines were completely safe and effective for everyone.

Instead of investigating these concerning signals, FDA leadership wanted the research stopped. One senior FDA official wrote to colleagues about Dr. Szarfman’s work.

“Before we potentially reach out to Ana, we should meet internally — many considerations not suited to email.”

Another expert, Dr. Peter Marks, warned that the data mining could “create erroneous conflicts that feed into anti-vaccination rhetoric.”

By June 2021, Dr. Szarfman emailed another FDA employee about conversations between the FDA and CDC regarding potential myocardial events associated with COVID-19 vaccines. She attached a data analysis showing “higher statistically significant safety signals for acute myocardial infarction” and noted they had “detected clear signals for other similar events.”

The FDA’s response? Essentially nothing.

While VAERS has limitations as a reporting system rather than a controlled scientific study, the discovered patterns of “extreme masking” warranted serious investigation. These weren’t random reports — they were statistically significant signals identified by the FDA’s own expert using the agency’s own tools.

This revelation fits a disturbing pattern from Biden administration health officials. Former CDC Director Rochelle Walensky made completely unsupported claims that “vaccinated people don’t carry the virus” and “don’t get sick” — promises that proved false.

Dr. Anthony Fauci downplayed the extreme difference in COVID risk between age groups, insisting everyone should be vaccinated regardless of youth or lack of risk factors. Former President Joe Biden warned unvaccinated Americans to prepare for a “winter of severe illness and death” and attempted to force vaccine mandates on all businesses with more than 100 employees.

Officials systematically downplayed the risk of myocarditis and other health-related side effects, particularly for young men. This led to unnecessary risks being taken by college students and others for whom COVID posed minimal danger of severe illness.

They ignored clear evidence that vaccines had little-to-no efficacy against infection, yet continued pushing mandates and passports based on false assumptions. Universities enforced mandates. Vaccine passports became reality. The propaganda reached absurd heights.

There was no interest in examining safety signal data because it might have undermined the push for universal uptake. Even if investigation had found the safety signals were overblown, the mere act of looking could have fed “anti-vax” sentiment. That’s what concerned these officials — not finding the truth, but controlling the narrative.

Americans don’t need to be “anti-vax” to want complete information about medical interventions. Concerns about COVID vaccines specifically should not be conflated with skepticism about all vaccines. But the more reports like Senator Johnson’s investigation emerge, showing how disinterested officials were in transparent safety monitoring, the more they encourage exactly the distrust they claim to oppose.

The Biden administration’s health agencies had one job: provide Americans with accurate, complete information to make informed decisions about their health. Instead, they suppressed data, silenced their own scientists, and prioritized public relations over public health.

They created this credibility crisis themselves. And they refuse to acknowledge it.

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