{"id":1672551,"date":"2022-10-04T15:04:49","date_gmt":"2022-10-04T19:04:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1672551"},"modified":"2022-10-04T15:05:49","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T19:05:49","slug":"newly-obtained-emails-reveal-details-on-cdcs-false-statements-about-covid-vaccine-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newly-obtained-emails-reveal-details-on-cdcs-false-statements-about-covid-vaccine-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly Obtained Emails Reveal Details on CDC\u2019s False Statements About COVID Vaccine Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnewly-obtained-emails-reveal-details-on-cdcs-false-statements-about-covid-vaccine-safety%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1672551&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Newly obtained emails show the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention\">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a> (CDC) made a false statement on COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring in 2021, months before agency officials gave false statements on the matter to The Epoch Times.<\/p>\n<p>The emails also show top officials in the agency discussing performing safety monitoring on a key database for myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation that has been linked to the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.<\/p>\n<p>The CDC promised in 2021 in a set of operating procedures to perform a type of analysis called Proportional Reporting Ratio (PRR) on reports of adverse reactions following COVID-19 vaccination. The reports are submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-vaers\">VAERS<\/a>), which officials have described as \u201cthe nation\u2019s early warning system\u201d for post-vaccination adverse events. The CDC also said in an updated set of operating procedures in 2022 that it would perform the analysis.<\/p>\n<p>But the CDC has\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/exclusive-cdc-says-it-performed-vaccine-safety-data-mining-after-saying-it-didnt_4617563.html\">made<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/exclusive-cdc-admits-it-gave-false-information-about-covid-19-vaccine-surveillance_4657836.html\">false statements<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/22088020-chd-request\">three times<\/a> this year on PRRs, initially saying such analysis was outside the agency\u2019s purview, then saying the analysis was performed starting in 2021, then saying the analysis did not begin until 2022. The newly obtained emails show that an official falsely said the CDC does not perform PRR analysis to an editor in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>John Gregory, a health editor at NewsGuard, wrote to the CDC on Oct. 19, 2021, asking for a comment regarding a claim that the CDC\u2019s PRR analysis cannot accurately identify when a vaccine causes adverse events, one of the emails shows. Martha Sharan, a CDC spokeswoman, sent the query to Dr. John Su, who leads the CDC\u2019s VAERS team, and Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, who also works on vaccine safety.<\/p>\n<p>Their responses were redacted apart from a comment on NewsGuard. Sharan then wrote that she\u2019d spoken to Gregory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI spoke to the reporter and explained that CDC does not do PPR analysis. The reporter is not going to pursue this any further!\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23116472-cdc-emails-on-prr\">she wrote<\/a>, adding later that she meant PRR.<\/p>\n<p>That contradicts the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/22119655-cdc-vaers-sop-2021\">operating<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/22278999-vaers-sop-2022\">procedures<\/a>, which state that the CDC \u201cwill perform\u00a0Proportional Reporting Ratio (PRR) analysis\u201d on VAERS reports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe let our published content speak for itself,\u201d Gregory told The Epoch Times in an email when notified that the CDC does actually perform PRRs.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4756744\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/09\/27\/Pfizer-GettyImages-1241445114-1200x800.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4756744\" src=\"https:\/\/img.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/09\/27\/Pfizer-GettyImages-1241445114-1200x800.jpg\" alt=\"vaccine for children\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Nora Burlingame, 3, sits on the lap of her mother, Dina Burlingame, and gets a fist bump from nurse Luann Majeed after receiving her first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination at UW Medical Center-Roosevelt in Seattle, Wash., on June 21, 2022. (David Ryder\/Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<h2>\u2018That\u2019s a New One to Me\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>In June 2022, the CDC falsely told Children\u2019s Health Defense, a nonprofit, that PRR analysis is \u201coutside of th[e] agency\u2019s purview.\u201d An Associated Press reporter, Angelo Fichera, flagged a Children\u2019s Health Defense article on the statement to the CDC, asking whether the CDC had ever performed the analysis, according to the newly obtained emails.<\/p>\n<p>Kristen Nordlund, another CDC spokeswoman, forwarded the query to Sharan.\u00a0\u201cMartha\u2014thoughts on this one?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s a new one on me\u2014proportional reporting ratios\u2019\u2014I need to send this one to John,\u201d Sharan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23116471-cdc-messages-on-prr\">responded<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sharan later sent a statement about PRRs to The Associated Press and the Washington Examiner.<\/p>\n<p>The Associated Press and NewsGuard never published stories on the topic. After The Epoch Times reported on contradictory statements from the CDC, the Examiner published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/restoring-america\/faith-freedom\/cdc-covid-vaccine-adverse-effects-data\">an article<\/a> about the developments.<\/p>\n<p>Fichera, Sharan, and Su did not respond to requests for comment for this article.<\/p>\n<p>The emails were obtained by The Epoch Times and an independent researcher through FOIA requests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe CDC claims to be vigilantly and transparently monitoring the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, but when it comes to Proportional Reporting Ratio (PRR) analysis, the CDC\u2019s broken promises, inconsistent statements, stonewalling, and double standards tell a different story,\u201d\u00a0Mary Holland, president and general counsel of Children\u2019s Health Defense, told The Epoch Times via email.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen asked about PRR analysis in connection with COVID vaccines\u2014through FOIA, media, and congressional requests\u2014CDC has made conflicting statements, some of them false. When confronted about the statements, the CDC claimed, essentially, that PRR analysis is not worth doing.\u00a0 And for the few months of PRR the CDC now says it\u00a0<em>has<\/em>\u00a0completed, the CDC has failed to make the results public, despite requests from multiple sources.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChildren\u2019s Health Defense calls on the CDC to do the right thing: do the analysis, and make the results available,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p><em>Timeline of CDC emails and statements. Some are being reported for the first time in this story, which continues below.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cI spoke to the reporter and explained that CDC does not do PPR analysis. The reporter is not going to pursue this any further!\u201d \u2013 Martha Sharan to CDC colleagues, Oct. 19, 2021. (source: FOIA response to independent researcher)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cCorrection \u2013 that should say PRR.\u201d\u00a0\u2013 Martha Sharan to CDC colleagues, Oct. 19, 2021.\u00a0(FOIA response to independent researcher)<\/li>\n<li>\u201c[P]rogram staff within the Immunization and Safety Office inform me that no PRRs were conducted by CDC. Furthermore, data mining is outside of th[e] agency\u2019s purview.\u201d \u2013 Roger Andoh, June 16, 2022. (letter to Children\u2019s Health Defense)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThat\u2019s a new one on me \u2013 proportional reporting ratios\u2019 \u2013 I need to send this one to John.\u201d\u00a0\u2013 Martha Sharan to CDC colleagues, June 22, 2022 (FOIA response to The Epoch Times)<\/li>\n<li>\u201c[P]rogram staff within the Immunization and Safety Office inform me that no PRRs were conducted by CDC. Furthermore, data mining is outside of the agency\u2019s purview.\u201d \u2013\u00a0Bruno Viana to Roger Andoh, June 30, 2022 (FOIA response to The Epoch Times)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cCDC has been performing PRRs since Feb 2021, and continues to do so to date.\u201d\u00a0\u2013 Dr. John Su, July 18, 2022 (statement to The Epoch Times)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cCDC has revisited several FOIA requests and as a result of its review CDC is issuing corrections. \u2026\u00a0In reference to Proportional Reporting Ratios (PRRs) \u2013 CDC performed PRRs from March 25, 2022 through July 31, 2022.\u201d \u2013 Martha Sharan, Aug. 8, 2022. (statement to The Epoch Times)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cCDC performed PRR analysis between March 25, 2022, through July 31, 2022. CDC also recently addressed a previous statement made to the Epoch Times to clarify PRR were not run between February 26, 2021, to September 30, 2021.\u201d \u2013 Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Sept. 12, 2022 (letter to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.))<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4580114\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1232572644-1200x800-1-1200x800-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-large wp-image-4580114\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1232572644-1200x800-1-1200x800-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4580114\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1232572644-1200x800-1-1200x800-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> A member of the U.S. military receives the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at Camp Foster in Ginowan, Japan, on April 28, 2021. (Carl Court\/Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<h2>Other Emails<\/h2>\n<p>Several other messages add to the timeline of the CDC\u2019s internal and external statements regarding PRR.<\/p>\n<p>Two weeks after Andoh falsely told Children\u2019s Health Defense that data mining is outside of the CDC\u2019s purview, Bruno Viana, a CDC records employee, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23116883-prr-missives\">sent emails<\/a> to Andoh about the response.<\/p>\n<p>Viana quoted word-for-word portions of the letter that Andoh sent to the group.<\/p>\n<p>The context of the emails is unclear.<\/p>\n<p>An email to Viana requesting more information returned an away message. The CDC records office declined to comment, saying a new FOIA request would be necessary to obtain the information.<\/p>\n<p>Another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23116882-internal-cdc-emails-about-prr\">set of internal emails<\/a> showed Su and Shimabukuro involved in responding to The Associated Press and the Washington Examiner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the above background, I might suggest the following response,\u201d Su said in one heavily redacted email.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJohn\u2019s edits look fine to me. Thanks,\u201d Shimabukuro later wrote.<\/p>\n<p>And other <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23116886-cdc-to-epoch-times\">emails<\/a> featured Su and Sharan talking to and about The Epoch Times\u2019 queries, including a followup query noting that an initial response did not make clear whether the CDC had, in fact, performed PRRs.<\/p>\n<p>Su was attributed with the false statement that the CDC had started PRRs in February 2021. One of the missives indicates the statement did come from him. That portion of the email is redacted, but the length of the text aligns with the actual response.<\/p>\n<h2>Analysis on Myocarditis<\/h2>\n<p>Clinical trials for the vaccines turned up no evidence of myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation, or a related condition called pericarditis. But real-world evidence of the conditions began emerging in early 2021.<\/p>\n<p>After the Department of Defense in the spring of 2021 said it identified myocarditis as a possible side effect of the vaccines, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC\u2019s director, claimed that the CDC saw no signal for myocarditis after looking at its vaccine safety data.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter hearing about these reports, we, again, looked back in our vaccine safety data, and we have not seen any reports of those. Those have since been reported to us, and so those investigations are ongoing,\u201d she said during <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/press-briefings\/2021\/04\/27\/press-briefing-by-white-house-covid-19-response-team-and-public-health-officials-32\/\">a press briefing<\/a>, adding later, \u201cWe have not seen a signal, and we\u2019ve actually looked intentionally for the signal in the over 200 million doses we\u2019ve given.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The CDC has declined to make public the results of that review. It\u2019s not clear what systems the CDC reviewed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time of the director\u2019s press conference, CDC did not have sufficient evidence to conclude there was a safety signal for myocarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination. Continued surveillance subsequently detected a safety signal, and further assessment verified that signal,\u201d Sharan told The Epoch Times in a recent email. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are both built on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology.<\/p>\n<p>An exchange just two weeks later <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23116470-prr-myocarditis-emails\">included in the newly released emails<\/a> showed that CDC officials discussed myocarditis monitoring.<\/p>\n<p>Shimabukuro wrote on May 13, 2021, to Su and Paige Marquez, another CDC official, with the subject line \u201cPRR for myocarditis.\u201d That email was entirely redacted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you saying\u2026\u201d Marquez responded. The rest of her email was redacted.<\/p>\n<p>Shimabukuro\u2019s next email was completely redacted, as was an email from Su apart from his signature.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo Janssen,\u201d Shimabukuro wrote next.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOkay, thanks for clarifying!\u201d Su wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The exchange ended there.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-zachary-stieber\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/WEB_ZacharyStieber-1.jpg\" alt=\"Zachary Stieber\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Zachary Stieber covers U.S. and world news. He is based in Maryland.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Newly obtained emails show the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made a false statement on COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring in 2021, months before agency officials gave false statements<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1672551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1672551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1672551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1672551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1672551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}