{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/2023/12/sen-johnson-to-department-of-defense-sec-austin-the-overall-lack-of-transparency-from-you-and-your-colleagues-on-covid-19-vaccine-safety-and-efficacy-is-appalling", "Sen. Johnson to Department of Defense Sec. Austin: \u201cThe Overall Lack of Transparency From You and Your Colleagues on COVID-19 Vaccine Safety and Efficacy Is Appalling.\u201d", "2023-12-04", "2023", "2023-12", "Republican", "Senate", "WI", "Ron Johnson", "J000293", "www.ronjohnson.senate.gov", "ronjohnson", "https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013On Friday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a letter to Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary Lloyd Austin regarding the Army\u2019srecent letter to previously discharged service members who were involuntarily separated after refusing to comply with the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination order, allowing them to request a correction of their records and potentially apply to return to service.\n\nSen. Johnson wrote, \u201cAllowing service members torequestto correct their records or potentially apply to return to service falls well short of providing those brave men and women any kind of compensation resulting from their involuntary separation and a profound apology for upending their lives.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf DOD wants to restore its credibility and trust among current and prospective service members, it needs to show that it is willing to be transparent and forthcoming regarding the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines,\u201dSen. Johnson continued.\n\nSen. Johnson has previously described DOD\u2019s credibility issues in hismultiple letters on data integrity issues in theDefense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED). His office continues to receive reports from DOD whistleblowers indicating that adverse medical events are alarmingly persistent in DMED.\n\nFor over two years, DOD has stonewalled the senator\u2019s oversight work that could provide service members and their families much much-needed information about the health consequences of the vaccines.\n\nLast month, DOD admitted to Sen. Johnson that it had \u201cidentified an increased incidence of very rare conditions \u2013 myo/pericarditis \u2013 during COVID-19 vaccine introduction in 2021.\u201d However, DOD attempted to downplay the significance of this by stating: \u201cIt is difficult to report precise numbers of adverse events following immunization since establishing a causal relationship between vaccination and a clinical diagnosis can be challenging. Nonetheless, the military has identified 80-90 cases of myo/pericarditis in Service members following administration of more than 4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in this population.\u201d\n\n\u201cOver the last two years I have sent over 60 public letters to federal agencies, including DOD, on various aspects of the pandemic. The overall lack of transparency from you and your colleagues on COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy is appalling,\u201dSen. Johnson stated.\n\nThe senator is still waiting to receive complete answers to questions his staff sent DOD following the publication of anews article that reported on new information from a DOD whistleblower on more increases in medical diagnoses in DMED. The senator also reiteratedrequests for Tricare data that he made to DOD nearly one year ago. DOD has failed to provide any response to that letter.\n\n\u201cInquiries and requests for information concerning the health and well-being of service members should never be ignored, particularly when those questions are from members of Congress and their staff,\u201dthe senator concluded.\n\nHe is requesting a response to his inquiries by no later than December 15, 2023.\n\nRead more about the senator\u2019s December 1, 2023 letter to Sec. Austin in theEpoch Times.\n\nFull text of the letter can be foundhere.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:14:16Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/2023/12/sen-johnson-to-department-of-defense-sec-austin-the-overall-lack-of-transparency-from-you-and-your-colleagues-on-covid-19-vaccine-safety-and-efficacy-is-appalling"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2806099839508533, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}