Sen. Ron Johnson published a bombshell op-ed on X Wednesday alleging federal health officials covered up COVID-19 vaccine safety concerns — and claimed Fox News, along with nearly every major legacy outlet, refused to run it.
The Wisconsin Republican detailed how nearly 40,000 people died after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and how federal officials allegedly hid safety signals from the public.
“The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA TODAY, and Fox Digital have all declined or ignored requests to publish this op-ed.”
Johnson, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, self-published the piece on his X account and Senate website under the headline, “The story the media — and the government — don’t want you to hear.”
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) June 18, 2026
The senator also released a Majority Staff Interim Report alleging Biden health officials “purposely turned a blind eye toward COVID-19 vaccine safety signals.” The report references cases of “death and sudden death” associated with the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
Johnson alleges Peter Marks, the former director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, was briefed that an algorithm used to analyze Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System data would “mask” adverse events. According to Johnson, the team at CBER received data for over three months pointing to vaccine dangers.
Rather than informing the public, Johnson alleges officials “ordered the data analyst to ‘cease and desist’ and then lied to the American public that ‘they weren’t seeing safety signals.'”
Johnson writes in the op-ed: “Currently, VAERS shows 1,676,100 cumulative worldwide adverse events and 39,099 deaths associated with the COVID-19 injection, with 9,332 (24%) of the deaths occurring within 2 days of injection.”
While Fox News covered Johnson’s report on May 3, the network did not accept his offer to publish the op-ed as a follow-up, according to Daily Caller reporting. Johnson noted NBC, ABC, PBS, CNN, and MSNBC likewise all refused to cover his report.
Fox News Media, Johnson’s office, and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
