They Knew. They Hid It. Now the Senate Has Confirmed It.

For years, our community has been told there was nothing to see. That our injuries weren’t connected to the vaccines. That the data didn’t show signals. That the system was working.

Now we have the receipts - with names, dates, and internal emails. The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), chaired by Sen. Ron Johnson, released an interim report on April 29, 2026 titled “Unmasked: How Biden Health Officials Purposely Turned a Blind Eye Toward COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Signals.”

Here is what it reveals, and why it matters to every injured person and family.

Timeline of Suppression

March 1, 2021

Dr. Ana Szarfman, the FDA’s senior safety data mining expert, meets with CBER Director Dr. Peter Marks and other senior officials. She presents a superior data mining method (RGPS) and warns that the FDA’s current method “is not the state of the art.” Marks thanks her and says they will “work through the issues.”

March 26, 2021

Dr. Szarfman shares an analysis by Dr. William DuMouchel (the inventor of the FDA’s existing system) showing 49 examples of extreme masking. Over 20 serious adverse events - including sudden cardiac death, Bell’s palsy, and pulmonary infarction - now show statistically significant safety signals when the masking is corrected. Report p. 2–3, 18–19

July 12–13, 2021

Szarfman warns Forshee (a high-ranking CBER official) in writing that her data mining detects "an increased mortality signal with the COVID-19 vaccines." Forshee forwards this to Dr. Marks, noting he is "very concerned" with how Szarfman may be interpreting the findings. Marks says he will "follow up appropriately." Report p. 23–24

September 15, 2021

Dr. Marks writes to CDER Director Cavazzoni (Szarfman's supervisor) that Szarfman "has been asked to cease and desist" and that her work "could create erroneous conflicts that feed into anti-vaccination rhetoric." Cavazzoni's office confirms to Marks it has made clear she should not discuss her findings externally. Report p. 11, 26

November 2022

CDC officials recall no longer receiving data mining reports from FDA. One CDC official writes internally: "I think that because of the FOIAs we may have asked FDA to stop sending these weekly data mining outputs." Report p. 11

The 25 Suppressed Signals

The report identifies 25 serious adverse events that were masked by the FDA’s flawed data mining method. When corrected, clear safety signals emerged for conditions our community has been reporting for years.

Neurological & Dysautonomia

• Bell’s palsy (Suppressed Signal)
• Paraesthesia ear (Suppressed Signal)
• Bradykinesia (Suppressed Signal)
• Basal ganglia stroke (Suppressed Signal)
• Cerebral artery occlusion (Suppressed Signal)
• Thalamic infarction
• Sinus rhythm abnormality
• Agonal rhythm
• Diaphragmatic spasm
• Dementia (Pfizer)

Cardiac

• Sudden cardiac death (Suppressed Signal)
• Acute left ventricular failure (Suppressed Signal)
• Diastolic dysfunction (Suppressed Signal)
• Ejection fraction abnormal (Suppressed Signal)
• Hypertensive emergency (Suppressed Signal)
• Blood pressure systolic changes (Suppressed Signal)
• Aortic stenosis (Suppressed Signal)
• Cardiac failure chronic
• Acute myocardial infarction (Pfizer, Moderna)
• Cardiac telemetry abnormal (Pfizer) (Suppressed Signal)

Vascular & Pulmonary

• Pulmonary infarction (Suppressed Signal)
• Embolic stroke
• Ischaemic stroke
• Aortic aneurysm rupture
• May-Thurner syndrome
• Hypomagnesaemia (Suppressed Signal)

Other

• Cholecystitis acute (Suppressed Signal)
• AST/ALT ratio abnormal
• Mastoid disorder
• Cardiac assistance device user
• Brain natriuretic peptide increased
• Asymptomatic COVID-19 (Pfizer) (Suppressed Signal)

What masking means in plain language

Here is the key technical point the report explains - and why it matters. FDA's data mining method compared COVID vaccine reports against a baseline that included other COVID vaccines. Because both Pfizer and Moderna were associated with many of the same adverse events, they effectively cancelled each other out statistically. The signal was drowned in its own noise.

Dr. Szarfman's corrected method stripped that distortion out. When she did, the signals emerged clearly - sudden cardiac death, pulmonary infarction, cerebral artery occlusion, basal ganglia stroke. Events that our community members were reporting, and being told were not there.

FDA's Peter Marks and REACT19 - what we were told vs. what he knew

The Senate report documents Dr. Peter Marks's direct involvement at every stage of this suppression. He was in the room on March 1, 2021 when Dr. Szarfman presented the signals. By September 2021, he was the one who contacted Szarfman's supervisors to have her silenced - describing her work as a "major distraction" that could "feed into anti-vaccination rhetoric."

What Marks said privately to injured patients

That the safety surveillance system was robust, that they couldn't find even slight signals. That doesn’t mean the injuries aren’t real, and no one is denying that vaccine injuries can occur.

What the Senate report confirms he knew

By March 1, 2021, he had been personally briefed on the signals. By July 2021, he had received the mortality signal in writing. By September 2021, he had succeeded at shutting down the scientist who found them.

REACT19 has documented our interactions with Dr. Marks on video. Watch what he told our community - and compare it to what the Senate report now confirms he knew: Click here to view video.

Why Recognition Is Not Optional

When safety signals are suppressed at the federal level, the damage does not stay in Washington. It flows downstream into every exam room, every insurance denial, every specialist who tells a vaccine-injured patient that what they are experiencing is not real.

Recognition is not symbolic. It is the clinical precondition for diagnosis, treatment, and insurance coverage. Without it, physicians lack the guidance to connect symptoms to cause. Without it, patients are left to prove something the government already knew - and chose not to say.

The consequence is not inconvenience. It is permanent disability. It is avoidable death. It is what our community has been living through for five years while this data sat suppressed in internal email chains.

Support REACT19 - keep the pressure on

Years of community documentation, congressional engagement, FOIA filings, and relentless public pressure from advocates - including REACT19 - helped create the conditions for this investigation. This report is a milestone, not a finish line.

We are a nonprofit run almost entirely by vaccine-injured individuals and their families. No government funding. No pharmaceutical backing. Just people who refuse to disappear. Every donation sustains our legal advocacy, medical research partnerships, congressional engagement, and the patient support network that keeps this community from being abandoned again.

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Read the full Senate PSI Report

“Unmasked: How Biden Health Officials Purposely Turned a Blind Eye Toward COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Signals” - April 29, 2026.