In a congressional testimony Del Bigtree, the CEO of the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) and host of The HighWire, dismantles the pervasive narrative that vaccine-related injuries are mere anomalies – dismissed as “rare”. Refering to a new multinational study of 99 million vaccinated individuals, Bigtree points out the systemic failure in vaccine safety science. When cumulative risks from multiple doses are factored in, something that has never been tested for safety, these harms are not isolated incidents but a public health crisis affecting millions.
The study Bigtree comments on is “COVID-19 vaccines and adverse events of special interest: A multinational Global Vaccine Data Network (GVDN) cohort study of 99 million vaccinated individuals,” by Jeffrey C. Kwong and colleagues. This observational study tracked 99,068,901 people across eight countries who received 242,831,303 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2), Moderna (mRNA-1273), and AstraZeneca (ChAdOx1) vaccines over 23 million person-years. By comparing observed post-vaccination rates of 13 adverse events of special interest (AESIs) – spanning neurological, hematological, and cardiac domains – against pre-pandemic baselines, the study flagged several signals where the lower bound of the 95% confidence interval exceeded 1.5, marking prioritized concerns. Neurological red flags included Guillain-Barré syndrome after the first ChAdOx1 dose, with an observed-versus-expected (OE) ratio of 2.49 (95% CI: 2.15–2.87) – a 149% risk elevation – and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), entailing brain and spinal cord swelling, at 3.78 (95% CI: 1.52–7.78) after mRNA-1273, a 278% surge. Hematological alarms rang for cerebral venous sinus thrombosis post-ChAdOx1 (OE 3.23; 95% CI: 2.51–4.09; a 223% increase). Cardiac events dominated: myocarditis across vaccines showed an overall OE of 1.36 (95% CI: 1.08–1.68), while pericarditis hit 1.29 (95% CI: 1.10–1.51). Yet the study as well as the media reporting about it all have claimed these adverse events are “extremely rare”.
But Bigtree questions what is then meant by “rare” when the study shows that “rare includes a 3.78 times risk of swelling in brain and spinal cord. This means you are increasing your risk of brain and spinal swelling by 378% over someone who didn’t get the vaccine”. Similarily the study and reporting media evidently consider a 286% increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome (paralysis), and a 610% increased risk of myocarditis or a 691% increased risk of pericarditis … extremely rare.
“If each of these potential injuries are rare, is it still rare when you add them all together?” Bigtree asks. Because the “rare” descriptor crumbles under scrutiny of dose accumulation. For Moderna’s three-shot series a 378% brain swelling hike from the first dose together with a 348% increased risk of myocarditis, would then be added to a 610% risk of myocarditis from the second dose and an another 201% higher risk from the third dose – compounding the risks into exponential threats. Bigtree also points out that the study did not look at all types of side effects that CDC had reason to believe could be caused by the vaccine; acute myocardial infarction, death, anaphylaxis, coagulopathy, seizures, convulsions, narkolepsy, cancer among others were not included. “What is the actual risk when you add up these potential adverse outcomes together? How high is the risk when you multiply all of these risks by five doses of the COVID vaccine?” he asks.
He lambasts the CDC’s 14 routine vaccines delivered in 72 doses. “How high is the risk when you multiply all of these risks by 72 doses? Now you have just considered the amount of risk that every child is facing with a CDC recommended schedule.” He continues: “None of the 14 routine vaccines on the CDC recommended schedule… was ever put through a long-term double-blind placebo-based safety trial prior to licensure”. Using the Hepatitis B vaccine as example, a vaccine given to newborns on their first day of life. Its safety study spanned four days sans placebo, per the package insert, which catalogs nearly 50 adverse events, from anaphylaxis to Guillain-Barré and encephalitis. This means, he argues, that it is true misinformation to claim vaccines are safe.
The core function of a vaccine is to reprogram the body’s immune system, yet no study has ever assayed the synergistic effect of 72 immune-altering shots. What does indicate the vaccine schedule is neither safe nor injuries rare is that chronic childhood illness rates, particularily for auto-immune issues, have quadrupled since the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act when the vaccine schedule increased from 11 doses to 72 doses of today. National Health Interview Survey data pegs 1980s rates at 12.8% for neurological and autoimmune scourges; 2011, it was 54%. “The greatest decline in health in human history” Bigtree says. The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has disbursed over $5 billion since 1988 for acknowledged injuries, yet the majority seeking compensation are denied as payouts are incredibly difficult to get.
He ends his statement by asking: “One in 45 – that’s conservative, many say one in 35 – children is being diagnosed with autism, roughly one in 20-24 boys. Is that still rare?”
Dr. Joseph Mercola describes in an article for Childrens Health Defense how authorities deliberately obfuscated vaccine-induced encephalopathies (brain damage) – once candidly termed “mental retardation” – by re-branding it as “autism spectrum disorder” to dodge liability and bury severity. A 2009 California study found 26.4% of “mentally retarded” kids reclassified as autistic post-diagnostic shifts, while CDC figures show ~26.7% and increasing, of “profound” autism cases – yet this granularity is suppressed to equate brain devastation with quirky traits.
And then there is the unpublished Henry Ford Health System’s 2017–2020 analysis of 18,468 Michigan children (born 2000–2016) that ICAN’s Aaron Siri unveiled at the September 2025 Senatee hearing. The analysis had pitted ~16,500 vaccinated (median 18 vaccinations) against ~2,000 unvaccinated, adjusting for confounders like birthweight and prematurity. Vaccinated children faced 2.48 times the chronic disease odds overall: 4.29-fold asthma, 3.03-fold allergies/atopy, 5.96-fold autoimmunity, 5.53-fold neurodevelopmental disorders, and over 4-fold speech impediments. Zero unvaccinated cases emerged for diabetes, brain/behavioral dysfunction, and tics – statistically very telling. Siri decried its suppression: “Had the finding shown vaccinated children were healthier… this study would have no doubt been submitted for publication and published many years ago. Instead, it remained hidden.”
Harms aren’t rare; they’re epidemic with millions injured worldwide. It is time for true gold-standard placebo trials, studies of vaccinated vs unvaccinated and the longterm safety, unshielded accountability, real informed consent, ban doctor discrimination over vaccine choices, strip CPS power in mandate enforcement, no mandates ever again and absolute and full bodily autonomy.
