Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) has called for an investigation into a Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official after the official allegedly mishandled records, leading to their deletion.
“Dr. Shimabukuro’s potential mishandling of his official records is highly concerning. His actions, if true, would have directly obstructed my multi-year oversight efforts of the COVID-19 vaccines and would be in clear violation of my November 19, 2024 demand to HHS, CDC, and the Food and Drug Administration to ‘preserve all records referring or relating to the development, safety, and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines,'” Johnson wrote in a letter to Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS OIG).
“Furthermore, given Dr. Shimabukuro’s role at CDC, which includes monitoring adverse events relating to the COVID-19 vaccines, his communications are directly responsive to my January 28, 2025, subpoena to HHS for records relating to the development and safety of the COVID-19 vaccines. Any attempt to obstruct or interfere with my investigatory efforts would be grounds for contempt of Congress,” Johnson wrote, noting that Shimabukuro’s potential mishandling of records is “yet another example of a senior HHS official obstructing Congress and evading federal record-keeping requirements.” He cited other instances of health officials evading record requirements.
Johnson specifically urged the agencies to investigate the extent to which Shimabukuro may have purged records and the extent to which other sub-agencies deleted records to undermine oversight and Freedom of Information Act requests.
