This article refers to two PDFs (600+ pages) consisting of communications acquired from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request:
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/wp-content/uploads/NIH-FOIA-59265-12.21.2023-Production.pdf
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/wp-content/uploads/NIH-FOIA-59265-01.21.2024-Production.pdf
For further details, see the Background provided below.
"The National Institutes of Health (NIH) corresponded with people injured by the COVID-19 vaccines throughout 2021 and initially acknowledged their injuries — before abruptly ceasing communication with them in early 2022, according to documents obtained by Children’s Health Defense (CHD)...
NIH promised to survey injuries but never followed through
... Sheryl Ruettgers, a professional counselor associate from Oregon, was injured after COVID-19 vaccination and contacted the NIH in 2021. She told The Defender the documents released so far 'are so heavily redacted, they are incomprehensible,' adding, 'I do not believe this is by accident.'...
The documents also reveal the NIH acknowledged communications from vaccine-injured people who reached out:
- March 15, 2021 (page 145, December 2023 documents): email from [Farinaz Safavi, M.D., Ph.D.] stated, 'We started an effort to evaluate post covid vaccine reactions.'
- March 2, 2021 (page 237, January 2024 documents): email from [Dr. Avindra Nath] told a vaccine-injured person, 'We are following several patients with neurological symptoms from the COVID vaccines,' adding, 'Our hope to try and identify if there is some kind of molecular mimicry between vaccine and the antigens in the nervous system'...
- March 18, 2021 (page 166 of the December 2023 documents): email from Safavi said 'we are trying to characterize COVID vaccine side effects and potentially propose the pathogenesis'...
NIH staff also referred to an online survey being developed. A Sept. 23, 2021, email (page 41, December 2023 documents) from Angelique Gavin, NIH/NINDS clinical operations manager, states, 'We are currently developing an online survey system to collect stories about people’s complications after receiving COVID vaccines.'
This online survey was 'never developed,' Ruettgers said...
At least two emails in the December 2023 documents reference a waiting list established by NIH for new patients to enroll in its study.
'Nowhere in any of these emails does the NIH say this is ‘alleged’ injury, or that this isn’t from the vaccine, nor do they explore any other possible cause other than the specific cases where COVID itself is reported,' [Brianne Dressen, founder of React19] said.
Dressen added:
'This isn’t some random disease they can’t possibly find the cause [of] or any answers. They were bringing people in, helping them in-house and remotely, talking through their care with their providers, using that information to build their understanding of the illness, and were providing treatment recommendations.'
Yet according to Dressen, while the NIH was aware of this, the general public was told, 'the vaccines couldn’t possibly cause these injuries'...
‘Who pulled the plug?’
A 2020 patient consent form listing Nath as the principal investigator for the NIH’s study (page 129 of the December 2023 documents) references a 'Natural History Study of Inflammatory and Infectious Diseases of the Nervous System' and shows that the NIH’s Institutional Review Board approved the study on April 9, 2020.
Yet, a Nov. 4, 2021, email (page 95, December 2023 documents) from Gavin states, 'The study has not yet been approved by our review board'...
People who were injured by the vaccines and in contact with the NIH expressed frustration with the protracted study approval and launch process.
For instance, in a Jan. 11, 2022, email (page 50, December 2023 documents), a vaccine-injured individual asked, 'Why nothing is being done to help all of us who were injured by the Pfizer' and Moderna COVID-19 shots? Another, from the same date (page 52), asks for “the contact email of whoever is responsible for not providing care for us and not researching what is happening to us.'
'When these emails are put into a timeline, you can see the research team being honest and straightforward for the first half of 2021, then everything changes,' Dressen said. 'They start getting more vague in their responses but still work with people, just not as straightforward and openly as they did before.'
By sometime in January 2022, the study appears to have stopped. 'Who pulled the plug?' Dressen asked. “Was it [Dr. Anthony] Fauci?”
Background:
On November 10, 2022, Children’s Health Defense (CHD) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents related to correspondence between National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers and individuals who contacted the NIH regarding adverse events they experienced after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
On April 12, 2023, CHD sued the NIH for non-compliance by filing a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief with the US District Court in Washington, DC. In this complaint, CHD's legal team asserts that the "NIH violated the FOIA through its failure to process this request expeditiously, failure to provide a final determination, and failure to provide any of the records to which CHD is entitled."
On June 16, 2023, the NIH filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. CHD responded by filing an objection on June 30th, and the NIH withdrew its motion in July.
In October 2023, the NIH agreed to produce up to 7,500 pages of documents at a rate of 300 pages per month.
As of June 18, 2025, the NIH has released more than 3,000 redacted pages in response to the original FOIA request.