The Problem With the Hidden V-Safe Data Narrative

Anti-Vaccine Politician Ron Johnson holds another Senate hearing about vaccines.

Apr 29, 2026

Can you see the problem with the hidden v-safe data narrative that is being laundered across anti-vaccine social media accounts and their websites?

Sen Ron Johnson hosted another anti-vaccine committee hearing - “Unmasked: How Biden Health Officials Purposely Turned a Blind Eye Toward COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Signals.”

Yeah, it’s that ‘the agency’ did tell us what it found!

The Problem With the Hidden V-Safe Data Narrative

In fact, we got regular updates about V-Safe data during the COVID pandemic.

“V-safe has been particularly effective in characterizing the basic safety of COVID-19 vaccines during early vaccine introduction and following new authorizations and recommendations.”
Update: v-safe after vaccination health checker (ACIP 2023)

Updates that included information on safety studies that used V-Safe data.

In addition to regular updates about V-Safe data at ACIP meetings, more than a few safety studies were done using V-Safe data. Of course, Sen. Ron Johnson doesn’t mention any of that at his UNMASKED committee hearing…

V-Safe safety studies that helped determine that:

there were no obvious safety signals among pregnant persons who received mRNA Covid-19 vaccines
the frequency of reported reactions was generally consistent with results observed in clinical trials.
that fewer than 1% of adolescents aged 12–17 years required medical care in the week after receipt of either dose; and 56 adolescents (0.04%) were hospitalized.
that the simultaneous administration of COVID-19 mRNA booster and seasonal influenza vaccines was associated with significant increases in reports of systemic reactions during days 0 to 7 following vaccination

So those of us who were watching the frequent ACIP meetings and following COVID vaccine safety studies were well aware of the V-Safe data!

Which makes you wonder why Sen. Ron Johnson thinks there was some conspiracy here…

Well, maybe it’s not too surprising, after all Sen Ron Johnson also pushed propaganda that young athletes were dying after their COVID vaccines.

There were regular reports about V-Safe data on reactions and health impacts after vaccination, including if folks were unable to work or needed medical care.

And even when ‘needed medical care’ or ‘hospitalization’ was reported to V-Safe, guess what?

It didn’t always mean that it was related to being vaccinated!

“Reported inability to complete normal daily activities ranged from 10.6% among adults aged ≥65 years to 19.8% among adults aged 18–49 years. Receipt of medical care was reported by 0.8% of registrants; most received care via telehealth (0.3%) or clinic (0.3%) appointment. Hospitalization was reported by 55 (0.03%) registrants. Among 45 registrants with information about the hospitalization available from the v-safe call center or free text message response, 29 indicated that the hospitalization was unrelated to vaccination, 13 completed a VAERS report, and three did not wish to complete a VAERS report.”
Safety Monitoring of Bivalent COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Booster Doses Among Persons Aged ≥12 Years — United States, August 31–October 23, 2022

In fact, the great majority weren’t related to their COVID vaccine.

I’m guessing Sen. Ron Johnson neglected to mention that in his UNMASKED committee hearing.

Instead, he goes with ideas of former employees who believed they knew how to do things better, even though many of the signals they supposedly could uncover in VAERS weren’t ever found on subsequent study.

At least 65 specific outcomes were analyzed to assess COVID vaccine safety, including those Sen Ron Johnson says were masked and only eight safety signals were detected, with only myocarditis ending up being a safety concern.

There is no link between COVID vaccines and sudden cardiac death, Bell’s palsy, and pulmonary infarction, three of the “statistically significant safety signals for adverse events” that Ana Szarfman was supposed to be able to uncover with her new data mining system.

There was no masking or cover-up of COVID vaccine safety signals. The only cover-up is coming from anti-vaccine influencers who aren’t reporting that the myocarditis safety signal disappeared with the latest generation of COVID vaccines!

And safety signals like myocarditis and stroke were found and regularly reported about!

Sen Ron Johnson had someone from Children’s Health Defense speak at his UNMASKED hearing.

I’m also sure he didn’t mention that COVID vaccines are safe, with few risks, and are still necessary for those who are high risk and for all of us if a concerning variant emerges that makes it easier for everyone to get sick again.

Thanks for reading StopAntiVaxPropaganda Substack! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Christopher Hickie MD PhD

May 1

I like the idea of a V-Safe set up for the childhood vaccines. Well I did until I realized that of course anti-vaxxers would just make up lies about the data just like they do about VAERS