Five Years Ago, REACT19 Asked Federal Health Officials for Help. Newly Released Emails Show They Knew.

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — August 16, 2026 — In May 2021, Brianne Dressen and a growing group of Americans experiencing severe and difficult-to-classify adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination appealed directly to federal health officials for help.

Now, newly released federal records provide a rare contemporaneous look at what happened after that appeal reached the highest levels of the U.S. health agencies.

On May 24, 2021, Dressen sent FDA Acting Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock a detailed account of patients experiencing serious neurological, cardiovascular and systemic symptoms following COVID-19 vaccination. The correspondence included stories from physicians, nurses, healthcare professionals and other previously healthy Americans who reported being unable to obtain appropriate medical care or answers.

The group asked federal officials for transparency, acknowledgment and research.

Two days later, Woodcock responded directly to Dressen, writing that the FDA took their experiences seriously and that she would see whether additional studies could be undertaken. She also acknowledged a fundamental problem: “It is not really possible to provide good medical care without understanding what is going on with the patients.”

In that communication, Woodcock described patients whose symptoms did not fit a distinctive syndrome and were difficult to quantify or evaluate through standard laboratory testing. She noted that the patients' central complaints were that “no one takes them seriously, no one knows how to treat them, and there is no effort to study this.”

For REACT19, the significance of these records is not simply what was written.

It is what happened next.

What happened after we hit “SEND”?

The May 2021 correspondence establishes that concerns about these patients had reached senior federal health officials.

It establishes that the FDA Acting Commissioner was personally aware of reports from affected patients.

It establishes that the need for research and better understanding of these patients was recognized at the federal level.

And it establishes that these concerns were communicated directly to senior NIH and NIAID leadership.

What remains unanswered is what happened behind the scenes after those communications.

Who discussed the patients?

Who reviewed the reports?

Were researchers contacted?

Were additional studies initiated?

What information was shared among FDA, NIH, CDC and other federal agencies?

And what did federal officials know about these patients—and when?

These questions are particularly important because subsequent congressional investigations have uncovered additional records concerning how federal health agencies handled emerging COVID-19 vaccine safety signals during the same period asking for help in 2021. Patients are still asking for answers in 2026.

The original May 24 correspondence did not ask federal officials to stop vaccination. It asked them to acknowledge patients, investigate what was happening and help physicians understand how to care for people who were becoming seriously ill.

The correspondence itself emphasized that the group was science-minded and that many members had willingly participated in vaccination, including clinical trials. Accounts documented people reporting severe and persistent neurological, cardiovascular, autonomic and systemic symptoms, often accompanied by extensive medical evaluations that did not provide clear answers or treatment. to Senators Rand Paul and Ron Johnson for bringing additional federal records into the public record.

We are now looking forward to learning more about what happened after that May 2021 email was sent.

Who knew what was happening? Who discussed it? Who acted? And who decided not to?

The patients deserved answers then. They deserve them now.

FDA: Janet Woodcock, Peter Marks

CDC: Rochelle Walensky. Jay Buter, Daniel Jerigan

The White House

May 24, 2021

Janet Woodcock:

We are a large and ever growing group of Americans who were previously healthy and have been seriously injured by the

COVID vaccines (Pfizer. Moderna, J3.J as well as Astra Zeneca in the clinical trial stage in the United States). We are pro-vaccine, pro-science and were excited for the opportunity to be vaccinated and to do our part in helping to end the pandemic.

Our search for much needed medical care after suffering these vaccine injuries has been largely fruitess. The majority of us have been dismissed by the medical community and have been told that the vaccine could not have caused these reactions. Doctors tell us over and over again that if this is happening, they would have been informed of these reactions by the FDA and drug companies.

After months of suffering alone without adequate medical care, answers or acknowledgement, a few of us have found each other online. Our numbers are growing more than we ever would have expected. The initial group membership consisted largely of physicians and other medical professionals. As the vaccines have become available to the general publio, our membership has swelled.

We have searched far and wide for help from any medical or scientific research entity. We have consistently received the same message back..that this isn't really happening. We have reported our injuries to VAERS, the FDA, CDC and the vaccine manufacturers with very few of us receiving follow-up or even acknowledgement. This lack of acknowledgement has left us as further collateral damage from the pandemic.

We have all shared very similar adverse reactions to these vaccines. We were previously healthy individusis. Our reactions occurred within minutes to a few short days atter receiving the vaccines. There is no doubt that the vaccines caused our

Our reactions have included nauses, weight loss, heartburn, diarrhea/constipation, sleep disturbances, chest pains. headaches, facial and sinus pressure, dizziness, severe weakness and fatigue, painful paresthesias throughout the body. severe painful paresthesias focused on the face, tongue and scalp, internal vibrations and tremors, muscle twitching and muscie spasms, brain fog and mental status changes, memory loss, tinnitus, impaited/blurred vision, elevated blood pressure and heart rate, bulging veins, heart issues and weakness. Several in our group have experienced paralysis of the lower extremities and to this day remain paralyzed. Many of us have been il for beyond 5 months.

As mentioned above, none of us had any of these symptoms prior to receiving the COVID vaceines. In our search for medical care, various diagnoses including small fiber neuropathy, other types of neuropathy, dysautonomia and mast cell activation syndrome have been made. So far, treatment is lacking and we are not receiving the care to improve our condition or cure us.

These illnesses are not just impacting our lives as a mere annoyance. They are leaving the majority of us disabled and unable to retum to our jobs as medical and other healthcare professionals, parents, teachers, scientists. eto. We have been pulled away from every aspect of ife to advocate for our own health. Enduring now for weeks and months, we are tirelessly spending more time on our computers, looking for answers, having many days robbed away for appointments, tests. and pharmacy lines. Not only have we been impacted physically, but mentally and financially as wel. Most of us are unable to work or are on a reduced work schedule. This is continuing for us without any end in sight.

WE NEED HELP.

On May 26, 2021, at 6:41 PM, Janet Woodcock wrote:

Thank you for writing. We take your experiences seriously and are evaluating all reports of adverse events associated with vaccination. I will follow up with individuals who do research into these types of conditions.

FDA does not diagnose people or do research studies, we are not that sort of Agency. However, I hear you and understand that you are asking that more attention be directed to what you are experiencing. I will see if more studies can be undertaken. It is not really possible to provide good medical care without understanding what is going on with the patients. Janet

From: Woodcock, Janet

Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2021 8:51 AM

To: Collins, Francis (NIH/OD); Fauci, Anthony (NIH/NIAID)

Subject: Vaccine adverse events

I have been contacted by a number of people who have experienced adverse events post COVID-19 vaccination (from all three of the current vaccines). Many are healthcare professionals, some of whom I know. The symptoms do not fit together into a distinctive syndrome and most are not easily quantifiable or evaluated with standard laboratory testing.

Clearly during mass vaccination you will get a lot of psychological reactions and it is hard to sort these things out. But the peoples' main complaint is that no one takes them seriously, no one knows how to treat them, and there is no effort to study this. These problems are not the sort that a system like VAERS would be able to detect, or even a more sophisticated population-based active followup such as CDC has, or a medical record based system such as BEST.

I think it would be worthwhile to do a study and evaluate a cohort of these individuals. But of course $$ need to be made available, and you would need an investigator who is interested in "medical mysteries". I doubt the industry would support, for obvious reasons. But my experience is, that if you let a problem fester, then it will come back to bite you later and you are not prepared.

What do you think of this? jw