U.S. health officials knew about the risks of myocarditis from COVID-19 vaccines but downplayed the concern and delayed informing the public about the risks of taking the jab — that is according to a new Senate report released by Sen. Ron Johnson Wednesday.  

Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, has been investigating the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines. Earlier this year, he subpoenaed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for records relating to COVID-19 vaccine safety data and communications about the pandemic. 

The interim report, spanning 55 pages, obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital, revealed that Biden administration officials ‘withheld crucial health information from the Subcommittee and the public.’ 

Since 2021, Johnson has sent more than 70 oversight letters, which he says were ‘either completely ignored or inadequately addressed.’ 

The report highlights the records Johnson has obtained pursuant to the subpoena from the new, Trump administration-led health agency. Specifically, the report focuses on HHS’ awareness of and response to cases of myocarditis—a type of heart inflammation—following COVID-19 vaccination.

Johnson’s report says the 2,473 pages of records he obtained ‘contain evidence of the Biden administration’s efforts to downplay and delay warning the public about the risks of myocarditis associated with the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.’ 

The report points to records from May 2021, in which health officials at HHS discussed whether to issue a formal warning about myocarditis.

According to the report, the formal warning about myocarditis was initially going to be distributed nationwide as a Health Alert Network message, which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is CDC’s ‘primary method of sharing cleared information about urgent public health incidents with public information officers; federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local public health practitioners; clinicians; and public health laboratories.’ 

However, Johnson’s report said that health officials at CDC and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ‘ultimately decided against issuing a formal HAN and, instead, posted ‘clinical considerations’ on CDC’s website about myocarditis.’ 

‘Based on the subpoenaed records the Subcommittee has received to date, as well as public FOIA documents, this interim report will highlight records and present a timeline showing U.S. health officials knew about the risk of myocarditis; those officials downplayed the health concern; and U.S. health agencies delayed informing the public about the risk of the adverse event.’ 

The report also highlights the Israeli Ministry of Health notifying officials at the CDC in February 2021 of ‘large reports of myocarditis, particularly in young people, following the administration of the Pfizer vaccine.’ 

The report also highlights documents showing CDC officials discussing ‘safety signals’ for myocarditis with mRNA vaccines in April 2021 based on Defense Department and Israeli data, but ‘still not taking immediate steps to warn the public.’ 

Documents obtained by Johnson also show CDC officials communicating with Moderna and Pfizer representatives about the risks. 

Johnson also obtained ‘draft meeting notes from late May 2021 exchanged between U.S. public health officials which included the question: ‘Is VAERS signaling for myopericarditis now?,’ and the answer: ‘For the age groups 16-17 years and 18-24 years, yes.’’ 

‘VAERS’ is an acronym for the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. 

‘Rather than provide the public and health care providers with immediate and transparent information regarding the risk of myocarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination, the Biden administration waited until late June 2021 to announce changes to the labels for the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines based on the ‘suggested increased risks’ of myocarditis and pericarditis,’ the report states. ‘Even though CDC and FDA officials were well aware of the risk of myocarditis following COVID-19 vaccination, the Biden administration opted to withhold issuing a formal warning to the public for months about the safety concerns, jeopardizing the health of young Americans.’ 

The report added that the Biden administration’s decision ‘to downplay the COVID-19 vaccine health risks and delay warning the public about cardiac-related adverse events associated with the mRNA vaccines jeopardized the public’s health.’ 

According to the report, as of April 25, 2025, VAERS reported 38,607 deaths and more than 1.6 million ‘adverse events worldwide associated with the administration of COVID-19 injections.’ 

Of the more than 38,000 deaths, the report said 25% occurred on Day 0, 1, or 2 following injection, compared to ‘2,663 deaths reported to VAERS associated with the flu vaccine over a period of 35 years.’ 

‘No other reports of adverse events associated with any other drug or vaccine even come close to these statistics,’ the report states. ‘And yet, those who oversaw the development and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines continue to insist it is safe and effective, without providing the data to prove their claims.’ 

Johnson’s report demands that the ‘full extent’ of the Biden administration’s ‘failure to immediately warn the public about all COVID-19 vaccine adverse events must be completely exposed.’ 

‘The American people fund the federal health departments and agencies with their hardearned tax dollars,’ the report states. ‘The information developed by these departments and agencies belong to the American people, and should be made fully and transparently available.’ 

The report states that as ‘the roadblocks are removed and more documents that have been hidden and withheld for years become available, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will provide transparency and let the American public see what is their right to see.’ 

– As House GOP leaders advance President Donald Trump’s so-called ‘big, beautiful bill’ toward a floor vote this week, Democrats, who are in the minority, are sounding a warning.

‘We’re going to hold Republicans accountable and there will be a price to pay,’ Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington State, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, emphasized as she pointed to next year’s midterm elections during a Fox News Digital interview.

Republicans are holding onto an extremely razor-thin majority in the chamber right now, and Democrats only need a three-seat pickup to win back the House majority in the 2026 elections.

Additionally, they view the sweeping and controversial GOP-crafted measure stocked full of Trump’s second-term priorities on tax cuts, immigration, defense, energy and the debt limit – which is currently making its way through numerous votes and hurdles in the House – as political ammunition.

‘This is a terrible piece of legislation,’ DelBene argued.

Democrats from across the party are shining a spotlight on the Republicans’ restructuring of Medicaid, the nearly 60-year-old federal government program that provides health insurance for roughly 71 million adults and children with limited incomes.

‘Let’s be clear, all Republicans are talking about right now is how many people and how fast they’re going to take away healthcare. They have these huge cuts to Medicaid, 14 million people lose healthcare across the country, and they’re talking about how fast they can do that,’ DelBene charged on Tuesday.

She claimed that House Republicans are ‘all blindly following the president and going to blindly follow him off the cliff.’

Rep. Ted Lieu of California, another member of the House Democrat leadership, argued as he took questions from reporters that the bill ‘has the largest cut to healthcare in U.S. history.’

The cuts to Medicaid, being drafted in part as an offset to pay for extending Trump’s 2017 tax cut law, which is set to expire later this year, include a slew of new rules and regulatory requirements for those seeking coverage. Among them are a new set of work requirements for many of those seeking coverage.

‘When you go across the country and talk to folks, folks are outraged, and they’re scared. They’re scared about the cuts to healthcare, not only cutting 14 million people off of healthcare but then raising costs beyond that for everyone and things like rural hospitals closing,’ DelBene argued. ‘This would have devastating impacts across the country. This is policy that Republicans are fighting for, cutting nutrition health programs so that families don’t even have healthy food.’

House Republicans push back against the Democrats’ attacks and say what they are doing is putting an end to waste, fraud and abuse currently in the Medicaid system, so the program can work for the public in the way that it was intended.

They call any talk that they are cutting aid to mothers, children, people with disabilities and the elderly a ‘flat out lie.’

DelBene countered, saying, ‘we’re not buying the argument because what we’ve seen in committee, what they’ve written down on paper is massive cuts in healthcare and all to pay for tax breaks for the wealthiest in our country. This isn’t a bill about helping working families. This bill is devastating for working families.’

However, her counterparty, Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, told Fox News Digital in a statement that ‘Republicans are ending waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid so the most vulnerable get the care they need.’

Additionally, Hudson argued that ‘Democrats are lying to protect a broken status quo that lets illegal immigrants siphon off billions meant for American families. We’re strengthening Medicaid for future generations by protecting taxpayers and restoring integrity.’

Dating back to last year’s presidential campaign, Trump has vowed not to touch Medicaid. On Tuesday, as he made a rare stop on Capitol Hill to meet behind closed doors with House Republicans in order to shore up support for the bill, Trump’s message to fiscally conservative lawmakers looking to make further cuts to Medicaid was ‘don’t f— around with Medicaid.’

While there are divisions between Republicans over Medicaid, and a chasm between the two major parties over the longstanding entitlement program, there is one point of agreement – this issue will continue to simmer on the campaign trail in one form or another long after the legislative battles on Capitol Hill are over.

China is concerned by President Donald Trump’s proposal for a new U.S. missile defense system, called the Golden Dome, which is designed to protect against adversarial attacks on America.  

Golden Dome has a ‘strong offensive nature and violates the principle of peaceful use in the Outer Space Treaty,’ Chinese Foreign Minister Mao Ning said Wednesday. 

‘The project will heighten the risk of turning space into a war zone and creating a space arms race, and shake the international security and arms control system,’ Mao said. ‘We urge the U.S. to give up developing and deploying global anti-missile system.’

Both China and Russia have placed offensive weapons in space, like anti-satellite capabilities that could potentially be used to try to take the U.S. offline, American intelligence officials have warned.  

However, China said it was the U.S. that was ‘obsessed’ with offensive space dominance. 

‘The U.S., by putting itself first, and being obsessed with pursuing absolute security, violates the principle of, and diminishes, the security for all and undermines the global strategic balance and stability,’ Mao said.

‘China is gravely concerned about this,’ she added. ‘We urge the U.S. to give up developing and deploying the global anti-missile system at an early date and take concrete actions to enhance strategic mutual trust between major countries and safeguard global strategic stability.’ 

Trump laid out a broad overview of the Golden Dome plan from the White House on Tuesday, projecting the cost figure at $125 billion. The current government funding bill working its way through Congress includes an initial $25 billion to kick off the project. 

Trump also offered an ambitious timeline for the project to be completed before he leaves office. 

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment on China’s reaction. 

The Kremlin, meanwhile, said the Golden Dome project could prompt talks on strategic arms control between Russia and the U.S. 

The U.S. withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019 and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, citing Russian violations which Moscow denied. 

‘Now that the legal framework in this area has been destroyed, and the validity period has expired, or deliberately, let’s say, a number of documents have ceased to be valid, this base must be recreated both in the interests of our two countries and in the interests of security throughout the planet,’ said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

China’s space-based targeting capabilities have ‘grown most impressively’ in recent years, according to Space Force Vice Chief Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, with hundreds of satellites now dedicated to tracking U.S. assets in orbit. He called China’s rapid advances ‘mind-boggling’ during a hearing on Capitol Hill last month and said the U.S. was at risk of losing its dominance in orbit.

Weeks before that, Space Force Vice Chief of Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein revealed that China has been practicing satellite ‘dogfighting,’ a sign of its growing ability to conduct complex operations in orbit.

Space Force has observed ‘five different objects in space maneuvering in and out and around each other in synchronicity and in control,’ he said.

‘That’s what we call dogfighting in space,’ Guetlein said. ‘They are practicing tactics, techniques and procedures to conduct on-orbit operations from one satellite to another.’