- Pentagon Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Vaccine Mandates on Military, Federal Employees and Contractors
By Mimi Nguyen Ly
Service members from all five branches of the U.S. military, federal employees, and federal civilian contractors have joined in a class-action lawsuit against ...
- Republican AGs Say There Is No Federal Vaccine Mandate for Private Workers, Vow to Sue
By Jack Phillips
Several Republican attorneys general have said that President Joe Biden’s federal mandate for COVID-19 vaccinations hasn’t yet come into effect for private businesses, ...
- Head of Largest California Union Arrested on Charges of Grand Theft, Tax Fraud
By Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO—The head of California’s largest union was arrested on Friday, a day after the well-known activist was charged with grand theft and tax fraud.
Alma ...
- Loudoun County Superintendent Appears to Admit District Violated State Law by Not Reporting Sexual Assault
By Zachary Stieber
The superintendent of a Virginia school district on Friday appeared to admit the district violated state law in failing to properly report alleged sexual ...
- Win for Virginia Parents After Loudon County School Board Member Announces Resignation
By Jack Phillips
Embattled Loudoun County, Virginia, School Board member Beth Barts, who was the subject of a recall petition, announced Friday that she will ...
- GOP Congress Members Demand Answers From DOJ about Parents’ Free Speech Rights
By Masooma Haq
House Judiciary Committee Republicans sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding an ethics review and public report regarding the AG’s ...
- Unemployment Claims Fall to Lowest Level Since Beginning of COVID-19 Pandemic Last Year
By Jack Phillips
Initial jobless claims dropped below 300,000 for the first time since the first part of the COVID-19 pandemic when lockdowns were commonplace, according to ...
- Arkansas Governor Allows Bill Requiring Vaccine Opt-Outs to Become Law
By Ivan Pentchoukov
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Oct. 13 allowed a new law to go into effect that will allow employees to opt-out of vaccine ...
- Social Security Announces Largest Benefits Increase Since 1982
By Joseph Lord
As inflation continues to climb, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has announced that social security recipients will see a 5.9 percent increase in their ...
- FAA Dismisses Claims Weekend Flight Cancellations Were Related to Vaccine Mandates
By Christopher Burroughs
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced the numerous flight cancellations at Southwest Airlines and other airlines over the weekend were not related to vaccine ...
- Republicans Warn Biden’s IRS $600 Disclosure Plan Could Lead to ‘Surveillance State’
By Masooma Haq
Republicans are sounding the alarm over a proposal tucked inside the Democrats’ 2,500-page $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act that would expand the ...
- Texas Governor Issues Executive Order Banning Vaccine Mandates by Any Entity
By Mimi Nguyen Ly
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday issued an executive order that bans vaccine mandates by any entity, including private employers, in the ...
![The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is refusing to release the results of autopsies conducted on people who died after getting COVID-19 vaccines. The FDA says it is barred from releasing medical files, but a drug safety advocate says that it could release the autopsies with personal information redacted. The refusal was issued to The Epoch Times, which submitted a Freedom of Information Act for all autopsy reported obtained by the FDA concerning any deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System following COVID-19 vaccination. Reports are lodged with the system when a person experiences an adverse event, or a health issue, after receiving a vaccine. The FDA and other agencies are tasked with investigating the reports. Authorities request and review medical records to vet the reports, including autopsies. The FDA declined to release any reports, even redacted copies. The FDA cited federal law, which enables agencies to withhold information if the agency “reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by an exemption,” with the exemption being “personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” Federal regulations also bar the release of “personnel, medical and similar files the disclosure of which constitutes a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” The Epoch Times has appealed the denial, in addition to the recent denial of results of data analysis of VAERS reports. ‘Easily Be Redacted’ Kim Witczak, a drug safety advocate who advises the FDA as part of the Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee, said that the reports could be released with personal information blacked out. “The personal information could easily be redacted without losing the potential learnings from [the] autopsy,” Witczak told The Epoch Times via email. People make the choice to submit autopsy results to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, Witczak noted. “If someone submits their experience to VAERS they want and expect to have it investigated by the FDA. This includes autopsy reports,” she said. Autopsies are examinations of deceased persons performed to determine the cause of death. “Autopsies can be an important part of postmortem analysis and should be done especially with increased deaths following COVID-19 vaccination,” Witczak said. FDA Responds An FDA spokesperson noted that deaths following COVID-19 vaccination are rare, citing the number of reports made to VAERS. As of Sept. 14, 16,516 reports of death following COVID-19 vaccination have been reported. Approximately 616 million doses have been administered in the United States through September. The spokesperson declined to say whether the FDA would ever release the autopsy results, but pointed to a paper authored by researchers with the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The paper, which has not been peer reviewed, analyzed the approximately 9,800 reports of death to VAERS following COVID-19 vaccination lodged from Dec. 14, 2020, to Nov. 17, 2021. Researchers found that reporting rates were lower than the expected all-cause mortality rates. “Trends in reporting rates reflected known trends in background mortality rates. These findings do not suggest an association between vaccination and overall increased mortality,” the researchers wrote. The researchers noted that prior studies have found that adverse events reported to VAERS are an undercount of the true number of events.](https://www.usnn.news/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/FDA-Withholding-Autopsy-Results-on-People-Who-Died-After-Getting-COVID-19-Vaccines.jpg "FDA Withholding Autopsy Results on People Who Died After Getting COVID-19 Vaccines 2")
