by Amy Kelly, Daily Clout:
DailyClout received the third, 131-page release of documents from Attorney Edward Berkovich’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The FOIA request stated: “I request emails sent by and received by Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, Sherri A. Berger, and Kevin Griffis (all of whom are CDC personnel) on dates beginning February 1, 2021 through May 31, 2021, containing the word myocarditis.” Astonishingly, the emails reveal that the most senior of leaders, all the way up to the White House, knew about heart damage linked to mRNA vaccines yet colluded behind the scenes to conceal this side effect from the American people.
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Approximately 60% of the production is redacted. In a letter that accompanied the documents, the HHS FOIA office gave its reasoning:
“The Office of the Secretary [of HHS] conducted review 94 pages of responsive records. After a careful review of these pages, I am releasing 52 pages, we have found that it is reasonably foreseeable that disclosure would harm an interest protected by one or more of the exemptions to the FOIA’s general rule of disclosure and/or that disclosure is prohibited by law; therefore I have determined to withhold portions of three pages, pursuant to Exemption (b (6) of FOIA (5 U.S.C. §552).
Additionally, CDC is withholding portion of 37 pages, to include 37 pages in their entirety pursuant to Exemptions (b)(5) and (b)(6) of FOIA (5 U.S.C. §552). Exemption (b)(5) protects inter-agency or intra-agency memoranda or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency. This exemption protects documents that would be covered by any privilege an agency could assert in a civil proceeding. These privileges include, among others, the deliberative process privilege, the attorney-client privilege, and the attorney work-product privilege. In this instance, the process privilege applies.
FOIA exemption (b)(6) permits a federal agency to withhold information and records about individuals in ‘personnel and medical files and similar files, the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.’ The definition of ‘similar files’ has historically been broadly interpreted to include a wide variety of files, and the United States Supreme Court has held that Congress intended the term ‘similar files’ to be interpreted broadly, rather than narrowly. I have analyzed these records and find they meet the threshold requirement of this exemption. Additionally, I have reviewed and weighed the public interest in disclosure of this information against the privacy interest in nondisclosure and found that the privacy interest outweighs the public’s interest in disclosure.”
In the heavily redacted Health and Human Services (HHS) emails from March 2, 2021, through May 28, 2021, we see:
- Ian Sams, former HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, COVID Response and current Special Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor and Spokesman for the White House; Abbigail Tumpey, then Associate Director for Communication Science for CDC’s Public Health Infrastructure; Rochelle Walensky, MD, CDC Director; and Dana Meaney-Delman, MD, CDC Lead, Maternal Immunization and CDC Chief of Infant Outcomes Monitoring Research and Prevention Branch, Fellow of the American College of Gynecology working together to craft a “Myocarditis Email” that minimizes the relationship between COVID mRNA vaccines and myocarditis.
- A template for “Weekly Cabinet Affairs Report” with the heading “MEMORANDUM FOR THE CABINET SECRETARY.” “Cabinet Affairs” seems to refer to President Joe Biden’s Cabinet, of which HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra is a member. The template mentions “POTUS,” President of the United States, repeatedly, and the section of the template on COVID-19 includes the headings:
- Significant activity for consideration to raise to the attention of POTUS
- Past Week Accomplishments and Setbacks/Obstacles
- Requests for White House Collaboration
- Next Week – Upcoming Events / Tasks /Developments
- Admiral Rachel Levine, MD, Assistant Secretary for Health, HHS, writing to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Walensky, after speaking with the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Section on Pediatric Cardiology, and questioning the existence of the known link between myocarditis and COVID-19 mRNA vaccines just one day after the CDC published “Myocarditis and pericarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination” about the link between them.
- Anthony Fauci, MD, then Director of National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); Janet Woodcock, MD, then Acting Commissioner of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and now FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner; Vice Admiral Vivek Murthy, MD, United States Surgeon General; Dr. Levine, Dr. Walensky, David Kessler, MD, Chief Science Officer for COVID-19 Task Force, HHS; Marcella Smith, MD, , COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force Chair; and Loyce Pace, MPH, HHS Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, with Sean Mccluskie, HHS Chief of Staff; Lisa Barclay, HHS Deputy General Counsel; Ian Sams; Sherri Berger, CDC Deputy Director for Policy, Communications, and Legislative Affairs/Chief Strategy Officer; Patricia Conrad, NIAID Special Assistant to the Acting Director; Julia (Julie) Tierney, JD, Chief of Staff of the FDA; Sarah Boateng, MHA, HHS Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health; Max Lesko, JD, Chief of Staff, Office of the Surgeon General; White House COVID-19 Response Team; Sherice Perry, then Senior Advisor, COVID-19 Equity Task Force and now White House Senior Advisor to the Director; and Kimberly Espinosa, HHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Legislation collaborating about a meeting with HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra regarding India where mention(s) of myocarditis is redacted.
- James Baumberger, Senior Director, Federal Advocacy, American Academy of Pediatrics, sending AAP News article, “Pediatricians should report cases of heart inflammation after COVID-19 vaccination,” to the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, who forwarded it to the HHS Assistant Secretary for Health and CDC Deputy Director for Policy, Communications, and Legislative Affairs/Chief Strategy Officer.
In the following email excerpts, you will see that people at the highest levels of the White House, HHS, CDC, NIAID, and AAP knew in early 2021 about the association between COVID mRNA vaccines and myocarditis, crafted messages to downplay the connection between the two, and sometimes outright lied to the public about the causal relationship that they discussed in private about between the shots and heart damage.
On May 14, 2021, Mr. Sams emailed Ms. Tumpey and Dr. Walensky with the subject, “what do you think about this?” and included an attachment, “Myocarditis_V4.docx.” Dr. Walensky then forwarded it to Dr. Meaney-Delman. The draft/edited email about which they were communicating read:
“Myocarditis Email
Subject: For Awareness: Investigating Monitoring Report of Myocarditis After Vaccination
Good afternoon,
In recent weeks, there have been reports CDC is aware of rare reports of myocarditis occurring after COVID-19 vaccination, including in Europe, where the EMA recently XXXX. and CDC is aware of these reports and continues to monitor available data investigating these reports.
Myocarditis is the inflammation of the heart muscle and pericarditis is the inflammation of the lining outside the heart. In both cases, the body’s immune system is causing inflammation in response to an infection or some other trigger. While myocarditis can be serious, it is frequently mild and self-limited.
As part of COVID-19 vaccine safety efforts, we have been closely monitoring myocarditis/pericarditis in multiple systems, including the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) and the Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD).
To date, there has not been a safety signal identified in either VAERS or VSD. CDC will continue to evaluate reports of myocarditis/pericarditis occurring after COVID-19 vaccination and will share more information as it becomes available. Healthcare providers should consider myocarditis in an evaluation of chest pain after vaccination and report all cases in VAERS.
CDC continues to recommend COVID-19 vaccination for people 12 years and older.
Thank you” [p. 112 of FOIA production]
Here we see those on the email thread downplaye the connection between the vaccines and myocarditis, removed the fact that CDC is aware of myocarditis reports post-vaccination, and emphasized that CDC is “monitoring” instead of “investigating” the reports.
On March 2, 2021, Michael J. Beach, PhD, CDC Spokesperson and Principal Deputy Incident Manager, CDC COVID-19 Emergency Response, sent an email with the subject “COVID-19: CDC/HHS Product Awareness (Not for S/R)—new publication tomorrow and question on Conditional Sail Order Phase 2A” giving a heads-up to key White House, CDC, and HHS personnel:
