by Zachary Stieber, Discern Report:
(The Epoch Times)—U.S. drug regulators influenced the decision not to send an alert on heart inflammation cases that were appearing after COVID-19 vaccination, according to emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was preparing to issue an alert about postvaccination myocarditis, or heart inflammation, through its Health Alert Network in May 2021. But that plan changed after meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to the emails.
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“The initial draft is with Rochelle now,” Sherri Berger, a top CDC official, wrote in an email on May 26, 2021. Dr. Rochelle Walensky was the CDC’s director at the time.
Hours later, a CDC spokesperson, Abbigail Tumpey, informed colleagues and officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that “we are still discussing the strategy on this topic.”
“However, after discussions internally and with FDA, we will likely [redacted],” she wrote. “Our team is on a call with FDA now. I will share the messaging shortly.”
Ms. Tumpey later emailed to say that the CDC had opted to issue a document called clinical considerations rather than an alert.
The CDC issued the online considerations on May 28, 2021. They stated that “increased cases of myocarditis and pericarditis have been reported in the United States after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna)” but that every person aged 12 years and up should still get vaccinated.
Ms. Berger and Ms. Tumpey, both of whom have since left the CDC, did not respond to requests for comment.
The FDA did not deny influencing the decision not to send the alert.
“The FDA continues to work collaboratively with the CDC to monitor for known safety risks related to vaccines and determine how best to ensure any relevant safety information is conveyed to the public, health care providers and clinicians,” a spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email. “After thorough assessment and when the potential risk was clear, the FDA updated the fact sheets for the COVID-19 vaccines and communicated with the public in a manner that was determined to be appropriate for the assessed risk.”