IMA Head of Medical and Scientific Affairs Dr. Ryan Cole joined The National News Desk to discuss a Senate review, led by Senator Ron Johnson, examining how the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) handled safety signals during the COVID vaccine rollout. Dr. Cole explains that VAERS has served as medicine’s early warning system for three decades, and argues that FDA officials saw serious signals as early as March 2021, including sudden cardiac death, strokes, and pulmonary emboli, yet withheld that data from the public, denying Americans the chance to give true informed consent.
The conversation turns to myocarditis in young people, who faced very low risk from COVID itself but, Dr. Cole notes, took on a documented risk of heart damage and lasting scarring from the shots. He closes with four practical steps for patients and families: document everything, file a retrospective VAERS report, find a physician willing to treat vaccine injury, and hold government to its own policies.
Check out these related resources from IMA below, followed by the full segment transcript.
Transcript
Angela Brown: New questions are emerging about what federal health officials knew during the COVID vaccine rollout and whether the public was given the full picture about possible safety concerns. A recent Senate review led by Senator Ron Johnson is bringing scrutiny to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, known as VAERS, and how reports of possible side effects were handled during the pandemic. Joining us now to discuss is Dr. Ryan Cole, Head of Medical and Scientific Affairs for the Independent Medical Alliance. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
Dr. Ryan Cole: You bet, Angela. Thank you.
Angela Brown: So for people who may not be aware, what exactly is the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System? What is its role, and what did it do during the COVID vaccine rollout?
Dr. Ryan Cole: Sure. VAERS has existed for about 30 years. It’s an early reporting system to find safety signals. So it’s basically the canary in the coal mine. When adverse events do occur after the rollout of something new, we have something to report to, whether it’s a doctor, a family, or an individual.
Angela Brown: Okay, so something happens. People can report to this system?
Dr. Ryan Cole: Yes, they can.
Angela Brown: Senator Ron Johnson’s review has raised new questions about how possible safety signals were handled. What do you believe the public needs to know at this point, and what may not have been told at that time?
Dr. Ryan Cole: The important thing is that system does show those signals, and there was a coverup by the officials at FDA of the data that were coming in. So people lost the opportunity to make a risk-benefit choice, to have informed consent in terms of getting that shot or not, because we were seeing severe signals of harm that were covered up by the officials at the FDA, who knew as early as March of 2021 of things like sudden cardiac death, strokes, and pulmonary emboli, that’s clots to the lungs, things of that sort, which are life-threatening in nature. And yet officials in the government decided that we, the people, didn’t need to know that.
Angela Brown: Now, one of the issues here involves myocarditis, particularly among younger people. What do we know about those reports?
Dr. Ryan Cole: That’s the other concerning area. We knew that young people were at very low risk for COVID, yet these shots carried that risk of heart damage. And that heart damage, we found, can carry on with scarring later on in these young individuals. Again, it’s a canary in the coal mine. These young individuals should have been given the option to avoid something that had early safety warnings that were ignored.
Angela Brown: As more information continues to come to light on this, what should patients and families who still have questions about vaccines, or even possible side effects, be doing now?
Dr. Ryan Cole: Really quick: number one, document. Number two, it’s not too late to do a retrospective report to the VAERS system. History matters. Number three, find a friendly physician that will treat vaccine injury. And number four, always protect your rights, and make sure that you keep track of government, making sure that they stick to the policy that they have.
Angela Brown: All right. To learn more about the Independent Medical Alliance, visit imahealth.org. Thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Ryan Cole, Head of Medical and Scientific Affairs for the Independent Medical Alliance.
