In July, Christian web designer Lorie Smith and her web design company 303 Creative was forced by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit’s panel to design websites for same-sex couples despite it being in violation of her deeply held religious beliefs. This ruling, which claims Smith violated the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, is in fact a violation of her religious rights.
Which is why Alliance Defending Freedom or ADF has sought out the Supreme Court to hear her case.
According to an ADF update, the group representing Smith filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking to hear the Christian artist’s religious freedom case on Friday. This was in response to the 10th Circuit’s panel’s decision to force Smith to “create and express messages and celebrate events that violate her faith.” The court essentially ruled in July that “the government can promote its favored ideology and force creative professionals to comply,” even going as far as suggesting that her faith can “damage society.”
This decision by the 10th Circuit panel is in direct conflict with the 8th and 11th Circuits and the Arizona Supreme Court, which all agree that the government “may not force artists to speak in violation of their beliefs.”
“Every American, including artists, should be free to peacefully live and work according to their faith without fear of unjust punishment by the government,” ADF Legal Counsel Samuel Green argued. “Just because an artist creates expression that communicates one viewpoint doesn’t mean Colorado can require her to express all viewpoints. It’s unlawful to force an artist to create against her will and intimidate her into silence just because the government disagrees with her beliefs.”
Smith maintains that she does not discriminate against the LGBT community, but refuses to create wedding websites for LGBT individuals because it is not in accordance to her Christian beliefs, saying that she “will not be able to create websites for same-sex marriages or any other marriage that is not between one man and one woman,” Colorado Politics reported.
Smith’s attorneys at ADF claims that the 10th Circuit took the “took the extreme position that the government may compel an artist to to create expressive content, even if that content violates her faith.” Chief Judge Timothy M. Tymkovich, an appointee of President George W. Bush. Tymkovich, called the 10th Circuit’s decision “unprecedented” and that the “the majority’s opinion endorses substantial government interference in matters of speech, religion, and conscience,” in such a way that George Orwell once described.
Smith is now asking the Supreme Court to consider hearing her case and consider to overrule its 1990 decision in Employment Division v. Smith, which says that governments may enact laws that “place burdens on religious exercise, as long as the laws do not single out religion.”
Smith claims that her case is evidence that the government has singled out religious speech for enforcement and alleges that either the Employment Division v. Smith or the 10th Circuit’s decision on her case should stand, but not both.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has used its gatekeeper role over the immense economic power of China, and its political influence campaigns abroad, to silence global media and influence nations and international organizations globally, on the human rights atrocity of forced organ harvesting. The summit, held between Sept. 17 and Sept. 26, sheds light on not only this, but on what one participant calls a “diplomacy of silence.”
Despite incontrovertible evidence, Beijing denies that it is currently conducting forced organ harvesting and has gotten the World Health Organization (WHO) to support the CCP’s denials. But the WHO assessment is faulty. According to Lord Hunt in the United Kingdom, “it was revealed by the UK government in 2019 that the World Health Organization’s assessment is based on China’s own self-assessment and that the WHO has not carried out its own assessment of [the] Chinese organ transplant system.”
Organizers of the World Summit demonstrate that CCP pressure has decreased media coverage of forced organ harvesting in China, leading nations and international organizations with little incentive to take the costly steps necessary to address the problem.
“Many members of the news media have failed to report truthfully on this atrocity but bowed to CCP pressure and published paid propaganda instead,” the organizers wrote on the summit website. “Societies around the world are kept ignorant of the dangers of becoming complicit with forced organ harvesting crimes.”
The founder of the nonprofit group Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) and host of the summit, Dr. Torsten Trey, stated on Sept. 17 that the summit looks “into the role of the news media and the issue of censorship. By default, the first task of the news media is to report facts and truths, however, another important aspect of the media is to connect people. Over the past fifteen years [since the New York Times broke the story of forced organ harvesting in China], the mainstream media has failed to connect the people in the free world with the victims of forced organ harvesting in China. This separation between the readers and the victims is another, often neglected aspect of censorship.”
Torsten Trey, the executive director of Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, speaks at an event in Taipei on Feb. 27, 2013. (Chen Po-chou/Epoch Times)
Trey noted that the World Summit is an attempt to bridge the divide between citizens and victims of forced organ harvesting.
Dr. Weldon Gilcrease, director of Oncology at the University of Utah School of Medicine, told the summit that the extensive evidence of forced organ harvesting has gone unrecognized by “most of the medical community, and indeed most of the world.”
When Gilcrease attempted at his own university to stop training Chinese doctors in transplants, arguing that they would likely use the knowledge to murder unwilling donors, his administration opposed him, saying that “there’s no doubt that forced organ harvesting is happening, but that taking a stance against a large, strong country such as China could be dangerous both to our institution, as well as the undergraduate and graduate schools that we serve at our university.” He was told that “if we said anything [about these atrocities], China would simply send all of its students to Texas.”
Several other summit participants called for an end to the international training of doctors from China in transplant techniques. Dr. Andre Gattolin, a senator from France and co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), criticized “developed countries which, in the name of sacrosanct medical and health cooperation, have proceeded without precaution to transfers of skills and technologies which have led to the shameful abuses observed today in China.”
Gattolin noted that France has “widely taken part in the training of numerous Chinese surgeons in the very delicate technique of organ transplantation.” As a result, “our trust—granted too naively—has been betrayed. We failed to demand a right of supervision over what might have resulted, and those who were tricked in the name of sharing knowledge and a certain scientific humanitarianism still refuse to acknowledge their share of responsibility.”
Carlos Iglesias Jimenez, an international human rights lawyer from Spain, said at the summit that Western governments and international organizations have not been tough enough to confront the CCP and condemn forced organ harvesting.
“We have many examples of this, the CCP has infiltrated so many international organizations: the United Nations Human Rights Council, the World Health Organization, the United Nations itself, managing to ensure that everything goes unnoticed, that everything is concealed, that these events can never be generally and publicly known by society and the whole world. And they are succeeding with the complicit silence of Western governments and international institutions and international organizations,” he stated.
According to retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general Robert Spalding, the CCP’s use of carrots and sticks against international democratic processes and deliberations on forced organ harvesting amount to “political warfare.” He told the conference on Sept. 19 that political warfare, in the form of influence through economic elites, is used to immobilize democracies to these atrocities.
Spalding said, “Political warfare is used to desensitize, to deflect any criticism on understanding of things like the genocide of the Uyghur population, the lockdown and control of the people of Hong Kong, the mass incarceration and organ harvesting of the Falun Gong, and the outright oppression of … certain elements of the Chinese population, particularly those that … the Chinese Communist Party fears.”
Retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general Robert Spalding in Washington on May 29, 2019. (Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times)
Françoise Hostalier, a member of the French Parliament, explained that the failure to acknowledge that Chinese leaders are operating on discrepant moral and ethical principles is because “China is an unavoidable economic partner, which is increasingly successful in many scientific fields, and which is bringing more and more territories and countries under its domination. There is a great risk that our researchers, doctors, laboratories, industrialists, and students, through scientific or economic exchanges, will find themselves complicit in the inhuman and criminal practices of their Chinese counterparts, which are contrary to all ethics, but without being aware of it.”
Hermann Tertsch, a member of the European Parliament from Spain, criticized the mainstream media for failing in its duty to cover the crimes of the CCP. “The criteria of the media world, which has hegemony over the world’s communication, are criteria that have been increasingly defined in one direction over the last 50 years, and it is in this direction that the crimes committed by the Chinese dictatorship are treated in such a benevolent way.”
Tertsch said that images critical of the CCP “have been disappearing from the networks, not only in the Chinese networks where nothing can be found about that tragedy of 32 years ago [the Tiananmen Square massacre], [but] also in the Western media, by Chinese desire or by the desire of so many of China’s partners, as we have among those who applaud in Davos, with those who applaud Xi Jinping, the great giants of the big takers of the big technology companies, of the big networks, we all know their names.”
He continued by saying that we are indulgent of CCP crimes because “they manufacture a lot there, because they have many economic relations, because they admire the model, because they want to apply a similar model.”
Democracies in the West could hold the CCP accountable, according to Tertsch, but “they prefer a big globalist regime where every person is anonymous and interchangeable, and we can take organs from one person and give them to a higher bidder or to someone who suits us for some reason.”
Economic interests, according to Tertsch, “lead these Western elites to be complicit with the Chinese Communist Party … to hide the monstrosity of the transplants, which are taking away, we do not know how many thousands of political prisoners, of common prisoners, of people from the Falun Gong movement, of dissidents.”
The world has a responsibility to face squarely the atrocity that is forced organ harvesting. That it is mostly imposed on highly vulnerable populations in China, namely the Falun Gong and potentially the Uyghurs as well, and that these populations have been targeted for cultural eradication, brings forced organ harvesting to the level of a means of genocide, per the U.N. definition. As forced organ harvesting is also a commercial medical procedure, those who support human rights face an entirely new type of crime against humanity: medical genocide for profit. The mainstream media must do a better job of covering this issue, or it loses any claim to be an unbiased conscience of the community.
Costco CFO Richard Galanti said on Thursday that Costco is putting purchase limits on “key items,” such as toilet paper, paper towels, bottled water and certain cleaning products, according to CNBC.
Driving the news: The problem has shifted from over-purchasing to a myriad of problems such as shipping delays, higher labor and freight costs and shortages on raw materials and ingredients, according to CNN.
“A year ago, there was a shortage of merchandise. Now they’ve got plenty of merchandise but there’s two- or three-week delays on getting it delivered…it really is all over the board,” Galanti said.
The big picture: At the onset of the pandemic early last year, there was a shortage of many goods including toilet paper.
The photographer who witnessed the incident where horseback-mounted Border Patrol agents attempted to control Haitian migrants crossing the Rio Grande last week said he never saw agents whipping anyone. His photographs led to unfounded claims from many officials including President Joe Biden that agents were whipping or “strapping” the migrants with whips.
In an exclusive interview with KTSM NBC9 in El Paso, photographer Paul Ratje said he “didn’t ever see them (the agents) whip anybody. ” He was swinging it (the reins), but I didn’t see him actually whip someone with it.”
Ratje said the incident occurred when Haitian migrants attempted to run around the horses. He took the infamous photos that have “really been misconstrued” from the Mexican side of the river.
Among those who apparently misconstrued the images is the President of the United States. “To see people treated like they did, horses running them over and people getting strapped, it’s outrageous I promise you those people will pay,” the president said during a press conference on Friday.
One day earlier, the White House announced a policy banning the use of Border Patrol horses in the Del Rio Sector. “[W]e will no longer be using horses in Del Rio,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters during the daily briefing.
Vice President Kamala Harris also turned against the Border Patrol agents who are currently under investigation. “I was outraged by it” the vice president said on ABC’s “The View”. “It was horrible and deeply troubling. There’s been now an investigation that is being conducted which I fully support, and there needs be consequences and accountability.”
Horse Patrol Units of the U.S. Border Patrol have a long history of carrying out migrants rescues in remote and hazardous terrains all along the southwest border. Breitbart Texas regularly reports on the rescues and apprehension of migrants and the seizure of drugs carried out by the men and women of the Border Patrol who serve on horseback.
In an exclusive interview with The Defender, Dr. Danice Hertz said people like her who have been seriously injured by COVID vaccines are being dismissed or ignored, and because health officials won’t research their injuries and potential treatments, they have nowhere to turn.
Danice Hertz, a 64-year-old physician who was “horribly ill” and “incapacitated” after getting Pfizer’s COVID vaccine, claims U.S. health agencies are ignoring thousands of adverse events.
In an exclusive interview with The Defender, Hertz said if she could go back in time, she would not have gotten vaccinated.
Hertz said she has been in contact with numerous health agencies, physicians and researchers — including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Surgeon General and doctors at Harvard and Stanford universities and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles — in an effort to obtain help for the neurological injuries she suffered after getting the vaccine.
Hertz told The Defender there are thousands of people like her — who have been injured by COVID vaccines — who are suffering and need help, yet they’re ignored by mainstream media and U.S. health agencies. Meanwhile, COVID vaccine mandates are being rolled out for millions of Americans, with barely any discussion of the risks.
Hertz, a gastroenterologist who retired in October, got her first and only dose of Pfizer’s vaccine on Dec. 23, 2020. “There was an opportunity to get the vaccine because the hospital was giving it to every doctor,” Hertz said. “I didn’t know if I would need to go back into the workforce, so I ran to get it. Within 30 minutes, I started experiencing adverse effects.”
“I waited the 15 minutes you’re required to wait after you get it, and I went to the car and my face started burning,” Hertz said. “I drove home five minutes away, and by the time I walked through the door, I told my husband to call the paramedics.”
Hertz said within 24 hours she developed neurological symptoms, including severe paresthesias in her face, tongue, scalp, chest wall and limbs, as well as tremors, twitching, weakness, headaches, tinnitus and imbalance.
“My blood pressure was 186 over 127, which I’ve come to find is characteristic of these reactions,” Hertz said.
Hertz called her doctor, and took Benadryl and steroids in case she was having an allergic reaction. The next day her face turned completely numb.
Hertz said:
“My entire face felt like it was burning — like acid had been poured on my face. I had sensations throughout my body like it was vibrating. I felt like I had a tight band around my waist, chest pain and shortness of breath, and I went to bed for seven days.”
Hertz followed up with an allergist who treated her with steroids in case she was experiencing an allergic reaction to the vaccine. After a few weeks of no improvement, Hertz met with the chief neurologist at Cedars-Sinai.
“I saw six neurologists, five allergists, three rheumatologists, and no one had a clue,” Hertz said. “They did blood work, skin biopsies, an MRI and more, and nothing really came up. Unfortunately, if a doctor doesn’t know what’s wrong with you they’re done with you, though that’s not how I practice.”
Early on, when Hertz was evaluated by the first neurologist, the neurologist asked her about a “CISA consult” with the CDC.
According to the CDC’s website, the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA) Project was established in 2001 to address the unmet vaccine safety clinical research needs of the U.S.
CISA is a national network of vaccine safety experts from the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office and seven medical research centers, plus other partners who address vaccine safety issues, conduct high-quality clinical research and assess complex clinical adverse events following vaccination.
The CISA Project also provides consultation to U.S. clinicians who have vaccine safety questions about a specific patient residing in the U.S. It also provides consultation to U.S. healthcare providers and public health partners on vaccine safety issues, and reviews clinical adverse events following immunization involving U.S.-licensed vaccines.
Hertz’s case was accepted into the CISA Project and was presented at the CDC’s grand rounds on March 23. Following the meeting, a physician forwarded a letter to Hertz suggesting she had “mast cell disorder.”
The CISA Project never followed up with her.
Mast cell activation syndrome (or mast cell disorder) is a condition in which a patient experiences repeated episodes of the symptoms of anaphylaxis — allergic symptoms such as hives, swelling, low blood pressure, difficulty breathing and severe diarrhea.
Systemic mastocytosis can cause skin lesions, pain in inner organs, bone pain, diarrhea and vomiting, weight loss and cardiovascular symptoms.
Hertz contacted the NIH and was evaluated remotely by Dr. Avindra Nath, a physician-scientist who specializes in neuroimmunology and is intramural clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the NIH.
Hertz said she sent the NIH her blood for a study, because they were seeing quite a few patients like her. She also sent her blood to doctors at Stanford and Harvard for evaluation.
The Harvard physician also thought Hertz had mast cell activation, and put her on medications, but they didn’t help. “I’m now on a lot of medications for mast cell activation, but I’m still quite ill,” Hertz said.
“I don’t think that’s [mast cell activation] the whole explanation of what’s happening to us,” Hertz said. “I’m still here nine months later. I still don’t know what’s wrong with me. I am not as sick as I was initially, but I still get attacks where I feel like I’m being electrocuted, and my husband can actually feel my legs and arms vibrating.”
Hertz started a Facebook group that now has more than 160 people who have experienced neurological problems after a COVID vaccine, and can’t find help with their conditions.
“We have 160 people in this private Facebook group and we all know each other very well and are trying to help each other,” Hertz said. “Together we’ve been trying very very hard to get help.”
“Although my group consists of 160 members who had legitimate adverse reactions to COVID vaccines, there are other groups I’m aware of that have thousands,” she added.
Hertz said the mainstream media does not want to talk to anyone in her group who’s been injured because they’re not allowed to publish about vaccine injuries. “There are a lot of people who have had neurological reactions and a lot of people don’t know it’s vaccine-related,” she said.
Hertz and her group managed to get a Zoom meeting with Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at the FDA, to discuss their vaccine injuries, but were disappointed when he did not show up for the meeting.
Hertz explained:
“We had a very important Zoom meeting with Marks set up. I think it was the day they announced Pfizer’s vaccine was given full FDA approval. We [the group] didn’t know in advance it was going to be approved.
“We all prepared speeches to plead with Marks for help and he didn’t show up. The head of the communications showed up –– not a science person. She listened to us. Her response after listening to us for a full hour was, ‘well if you could give me your VAERS [Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System] number, I’ll have everyone look into your VAERS cases and we will see what we can do to help you.’”
Hertz said the FDA representative completely missed the point. “We were here to represent a large number of people who’ve been injured and need medical care, yet we got no response,” she said.
.@SenRonJohnson + former Green Bay Packers Ken Ruettgers held press conference with families who want to "be seen, heard + believed by medical community" after suffering adverse reactions to COVID vaccines.
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) June 29, 2021
U.S. agencies are aware of vaccine injuries
Hertz said there are different theories for adverse reactions like hers, but she doesn’t think any have been proven or that enough research has been done.
“Some people think it’s an immune-mediated neuropathy where nerves are attacked by antibodies triggered by the vaccine,” Hertz said. “A doctor in California claims he found a spike protein produced by the vaccine in our monocytes — as he is doing research on members in the group.”
Hertz said several members of her private Facebook group went to the NIH for treatment, especially those who were paralyzed after getting the vaccine and can’t use their legs.
“The NIH is aware of what is happening but publicly has been dismissive of vaccine adverse reactions,” Hertz said.
“Early on when I was so sick in early January, I tried to figure out whom I should contact — and I did contact another gentleman at the NIH who is very high up in the NIAID [National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases],” Hertz said. “He told me they are ‘very aware’ of these reactions and are looking into them.”
“They knew about these adverse reactions before the vaccines were released from the clinical trials,” Hertz said.
In a Feb. 11 email exchange (see below) between Hertz and the NIH and NIAID (the agency led by Dr. Anthony Fauci) just two months after COVID vaccines received Emergency Use Authorization, an official acknowledged other reactions like the ones Hertz experienced had been reported and agencies were aware of them.
Hertz said she believes the NIH conveys a different position behind the scenes than the one the agency presents to the public. She said she believes it’s because the NIH is funded by the FDA.
Hertz has had several communication exchanges with Marks and Dr. Janet Woodcock, FDA acting commissioner. Neither Marks, nor Woodcock took Hertz’ concerns seriously, but instead, wished her the best with her debilitating vaccine injuries.
Hertz said Woodcock initially said she would like to help, but then responded again saying:
“I am so very sorry for your ordeal. It seems what is missing is what they call a ‘research definition,’ in other words a syndromic framework to describe what is being experienced, since it may not fit into current diagnostic categories. Possibly one of the academic researchers you have consulted could work on that. I don’t have insight into how this could be approached from a treatment standpoint.”
In other words, they are not interested in hearing about these reactions, Hertz said in an email to the NIH where she described the FDA’s response.
“It is shocking to me that they completely blow off these reports of hundreds and thousands suffering with severe reactions. I would think they would want to know as much as possible about these reactions. Something is very wrong and these adverse reactions to the vaccines are being covered up. It is a great disservice to so many who are suffering like me.”
On Feb. 1, Hertz reached out to her team of physicians, the CDC and Marks regarding her experience and those of five other women who developed neurological problems after Pfizer’s vaccine. Hertz asked why their neurological reactions were being ignored.
“As most of you know me, I am a 64-year-old gastroenterologist who suffered a terrible reaction 30 minutes after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer Covid vaccine. I am still very symptomatic almost 9 weeks out with severe paresthesias, chest tightness, tremor, dizziness, headaches. I am on the internet seeking information and came across an article in a journal Neurology Today. I wrote a comment after the article about my reaction. I have subsequently been contacted by five other women who have had very similar neurological reactions to mine and are all quite ill weeks after receiving their vaccines.
“They have had similar difficulty in getting appropriate medical care as the medical community knows nothing about these reactions. They, too, have reported their reactions to the drug companies, the regulatory governmental agencies, and there has been no response or documentation of their reactions.
“It is apparent that these neurological reactions are not unheard of. Why are they not being addressed? Why are our reports being ignored? We do not have any desire to frighten the public about the vaccine, but we all very much would like to get medical care and fear that we will not recover from these debilitating symptoms. We were all previously healthy. We are considering going to the media as we are terribly frustrated at the lack of transparency. Any advice from you would be greatly appreciated.”
Marks responded that he was “so sorry” to hear of her symptoms, that the FDA takes adverse events seriously and said he asked the pharmacovigilance team to follow up with her. To date, neither Marks, nor the pharmacovigilance team have followed up.
On March 17, an official at the NIH emailed Hertz — and copied Pfizer — acknowledging more than 1,000 neurological side effects reported to VAERS, and promising to present them to the scientific community, which to date, has not been done.
The official said:
“If you look at VAERS database there are more than 1,000 neurological side effects already reported but in order to present it to scientific community we have to gather as much information as we can before sending it out. I promise you we will report your issue and other cases that we are reviewing now and I really [would] appreciate if you kindly give us 1-2 weeks to collect comprehensive information before publicizing it.”
“Why is this being kept a secret? When will the public be made aware so we can get treatment? Will we recover? You have no idea the pain and suffering that many people have been going through. I wish you could experience what we are experiencing to understand my pleas. It is very difficult to live this way. At times, I am in so much pain that I don’t want to live. It is so shocking to me that this suppression of information and the truth can occur in our country. As a physician, I never imagined this could occur here in the United States, with our great medical system and regulatory agencies.
“Please bring these reactions public so medical care will be available to the many like me who are suffering agonizing symptoms resulting from these vaccines. Eventually, the truth will be told. We need help now.”
Hertz said she received a response from Woodcock, who said the FDA is “looking into these neurological reactions.” But there has been no follow-through or acknowledgement of her injuries — or the injuries thousands of others are experiencing.
Hertz, who is pro-vaccine, said she is concerned the FDA, NIH, CDC and pharmaceutical companies are ignoring vaccine injuries.
Hertz explained:
“We want the medical community to be educated about these reactions so they don’t dismiss us, so that they can validate what has happened and treat us. We need research done to discover what happened and to create treatments. And now there are vaccine mandates and people like us cannot get vaccinated again. There are many in my group who are physicians and cannot go back to work until they’re fully vaccinated but they can’t go back to work and it’s not easy to get an exemption. We need to look at that.”
On May 24, Hertz and 79 other individuals who were injured by Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca (U.S. clinical trial) vaccines wrote a letter to the Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General and the White House pleading with them to validate their reactions so they could be addressed properly.
The group stated:
“We have all shared very similar adverse reactions to these vaccines. We were previously healthy individuals. Our reactions occurred within minutes to a few short days after receiving the vaccines. There is no doubt that the vaccines caused our reactions.
“Our reactions have included nausea, weight loss, heartburn, diarrhea/constipation, sleep disturbances, chest pains, headaches, facial and sinus pressure, dizziness, severe weakness and fatigue, painful paresthesias throughout the body, severe painful paresthesias focused on the face, tongue and scalp, internal vibrations and tremors, muscle twitching and muscle spasms, brain fog and mental status changes, memory loss, tinnitus, impaired/blurred vision, elevated blood pressure and heart rate, bulging veins, heart issues and weakness. Several in our group have experienced paralysis of the lower extremities and to this day remain paralyzed. Many of us have been ill for five months.”
Nobody in the group had any of the above symptoms prior to getting a COVID vaccine.
“They [the injuries] are leaving the majority of us disabled and unable to return to our jobs as medical and other healthcare professionals, parents, teachers, scientists, etc.,” the group wrote.
“Not only have we been impacted physically, but mentally and financially as well. Most of us are unable to work, or are on a reduced work schedule. This is continuing for us without any end in sight.”
“WE NEED HELP,” the group wrote. “The constant messaging that the vaccines are safe and with zero acknowledgement of these adverse neurological reactions has made it impossible for us to obtain medical treatment. We are ‘collateral damage’ in the effort to stop the pandemic.”
The group told Murthy that until adverse reactions are acknowledged, it will be impossible to receive care. “We are pleading that you make the medical community aware of these reactions so we can get the medical care we need,” the group wrote.
U.S. health agencies don’t want people to know about vaccine injuries
When asked by The Defender why the U.S. health agencies would cover up vaccine adverse events, suppress research and fail to provide those injured with adequate treatments, Hertz responded:
“The pandemic is horrible. It’s a real problem. But they made calculated decisions on how to protect the most people, and I don’t know who made these decisions but they’ve decided vaccinating as many people as possible will save more people than attending to the vaccine injuries. I think they do not want to create fear or panic and to publicize the fact there are injuries.”
Hertz said she believes what’s happening with COVID vaccines is a crime against our country.
“If there is anything I could do, I would go back in time and take that shot out of me,” Hertz said. “I took every single vaccine that ever came out, and I had never had a reaction to anything. I went in that day without any concern because it had been cleared by the FDA. I feel like an idiot.”
Hertz said she submitted several reports to VAERS, but the CDC never followed up. She received a call from one clerical person just confirming the report and she told them, “I am a physician. I am severely ill. I’m fearful of my life. I did report to Pfizer in written and verbal form, and nobody has ever called me back.”
Hertz reached out to Dr. Marks again on Feb. 23 after not receiving a follow-up as promised, and another official with CBER responded. The official referred her to VAERS, and told her how to request information about her adverse event and how to obtain a copy of the report. He also suggested she request a CISA consult from the CDC, which she had already done.
Hertz responded:
“Thank you for your recommendation to contact VAERS. Unfortunately this is not helpful as it has already been done. Hopefully, you will become aware of the injuries some people are experiencing from the vaccines and educate the medical community so that medical care will be available for people like me.”
The official asked whether she had filled out her report correctly and that he was under the impression VAERS will contact her if “follow-up information is needed.”
Hertz said she provided contact information on the VAERS report she filed and was “fully aware of the many hundreds of reports with similar reactions in the VAERS database,” as were the people in her group with similar severe reactions. “We and our physicians have requested CDC CISA consults which have been completely unhelpful,” Hertz said.
Hertz explained:
“I would think the FDA and CDC would want to know about these reactions. We have all been seriously ill. It is truly shocking that our reports have not been taken seriously and that the FDA is not asking for follow up from us. There is apparently no concern about people being injured by the vaccines.
“The suggestions you make in both of your emails to me are nonsensical. I am a physician, not a moron. You skirt the issue that there are many of us that have been injured by the vaccines and are being ignored. Your emails are insulting and demeaning. You are completely missing my point. I guess that is just representative of how seriously you are taking the fact that there are many people being severely injured by the Covid vaccines and are struggling to get validation and medical care because these reactions are being hidden from the medical community.
“This is truly shocking. Having practiced medicine for 33 years, I always had faith in our regulatory agencies. Now, having been seriously injured by this vaccine and struggling to be taken seriously and get medical assistance, I no longer have faith.”
On July 2, Hertz reached out to one of her contacts at the NIH again asking if there was anyone studying adverse reactions like hers, and the group she represents. She wrote, “We have been abandoned by the government, and the medical community knows nothing about these adverse reactions. We desperately need medical help.”
There was no response.
Hertz said that as a physician, she is pro-vaccine but she is also “pro-informed consent,” and she has always given that to her patients.
“Whatever I did to them, if it was a procedure like a colonoscopy or prescribing a medication, I always provided them with the risks involved,” Hertz said. “There has been no informed consent with the [COVID] vaccine, and if I would have known I never would have gotten it.”
Hertz said the public needs to be given accurate and complete information about the risks and the ability to make a choice. “To make that choice for them is wrong,” she said.
From the nation’s capital to the harvest fields in the mid-west, Christians have been crying out to God for spiritual renewal in America. Some believe the nation sits on the brink of collapse, with the only hope being a visitation of God’s power and presence.
“Revival or we die,” Dr. Michael Brown told CBN News. “That’s where we have to get. You have to get to a place where you can’t live any longer without visitation. It could be personal, personal revival where you know there must be a breakthrough.”
Brown asks, “What will heal the deep racial, social, and political divisions that are tearing us apart?”
“America’s being torn apart by the seams,” explained Brown. “And we’ve seen that there are no political solutions, there are no social solutions, and the church itself has become impotent. We’re at a crisis point in American history where without divine visitation America as we know it could come to an end or could be so marred that the world our kids grow up in will be very, very different.”
Dr. Corne Bekker, Dean of Regent University’s School of Divinity agrees with Brown’s assessment. He says that the country has reached a time of spiritual reckoning.
“I believe America recognizes that politics cannot save her,” Bekker said in an interview with CBN News. “Ideology cannot save her. Social change cannot save her. Only the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
A student of past revival movements, Bekker believes to experience true spiritual renewal, the church must first prepare.
“Revival throughout the history of the church is always a sovereign move of God,” said Bekker. “No man can, in essence, make it happen. It is supernatural. And so what we desperately need to do is cry out to God. That’s what Psalm 85 says, ‘Revive us, oh Lord.’”
Bekker added, “Secondly to search our hearts, to allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts.”
In 1995, Brown helped to lead the Brownsville revival in Florida, which lasted six years. He said supernatural moves of God are unscripted and out of the norm.
“When revival happens it’s not just a matter of one or two people getting excited or a crowd getting lifted up,” said Brown. “Revival happens outside of church buildings. Some of the greatest testimonies we heard during the Brownsville revival were after people left. When they got to their church service next Sunday the fire of God would fall. And the fire of God would continue to burn for months or even for years.”
Bekker is hopeful that the nation is on the verge of something even bigger than Brownsville.
“True revival happens in the streets, happens in the homes, and happens in the darkest places of society,” Bekker explained. “Think of the most chaotic places in our world, darkest places in our world, that’s where the Spirit is hovering waiting to re-create. It’s not too late for America. It’s not too late.”
Bekker says the impact of God’s power will be undeniable.
“We will see monumental change firstly in the church, but we will also see it in our community,” he said. “We will see families restored. We will see crime go down. We will see a thirst and hunger for holiness within our world.”
All signs that Brown says are already taking place.
“As I have been out ministering just this year as restrictions have lifted after COVID, I’ve seen God move in ways, I’m seeing hunger,” said Brown.
“I’m seeing people weeping in the presence of God. I’ve seen people set free and transformed. It’s happening here and there. I believe it’s going to be nationwide, and we can literally see the nation ablaze with revival fire.
On Friday, Arizona state Republicans announced the findings of the Arizona Senate audit of the 2020 presidential election results in Maricopa County.
Among the audit’s many findings was that over 17,000 total duplicate ballots — meaning ballots submitted by individuals who voted more than once in the election — were found.
Dr. Shiva's team identified 17,322 duplicate ballots — this finding is NOT in the audit report
As much was revealed by Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, an expert in pattern recognition and classification of diverse signals and signatures who has four degrees from M.I.T.
The Arizona Republicans conducting the audit enlisted Ayyadurai and his team of experts to aid in the audit by investigating mail-in ballot envelopes used in the election.
The team reported it found 17,322 duplicate ballots in the election.
As noted by Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake on Twitter, Maricopa County itself had reported no duplicate ballots.
“This is our new Declaration of Independence. This is our manifesto of freedom.”
At the conclusion of the Arizona Senate hearing examining the forensic audit of Maricopa County, state Sen. Wendy Rogers unveiled a letter signed by 41 legislators from multiple states calling for a 50-state-wide audit and, should these audits suggest a flawed election, mass decertification of the 2020 election, calling it the “new Declaration of Independence.”
Following damning and explosive revelations of a corrupted 2020 election in Arizona, Senator Wendy Rogers unveiled a letter signed by 41 state legislators calling for nationwide audits in all 50 states, signifying a massive push to decertify the 2020 Presidential Election.
BREAKING: Sen. Wendy Rogers unveils letter signed by 41 state legislators from across the country calling for forensic audits in each state, and urging their states to decertify the 2020 election if their audit results mirror those in Arizona. pic.twitter.com/Fd7mytHLX5
“This is a situation of state’s rights. We are states of the United States, who gave the federal government their power,” Rogers said. “The US Constitution gives us the plenary power to oversee the US Presidential Election, and so today, you got the truth.”
“No matter what the left says, we will keep this in the narrative. We will stay focused. We will persevere. We will hold those criminally accountable,” she continued, unveiling a letter signed by 41 state legislators calling for nationwide audits and decertification of the 2020 election.
41 Legislators from Multiple States Write a Letter to the American People Calling for a 50-State Audit, Decertification Where Appropriate, and Possible Convening of the US House of Representatives pic.twitter.com/Hoz6zUBtZq
“This is our new Declaration of Independence. This is our manifesto of freedom,” Rogers declared, with emphasis added by National File.
This comes after the forensic audit of Arizona’s Maricopa County revealed thousands of discrepancies and issues with EV32 and EV33 ballot forms, along with a number of other serious election integrity problems, as National File reported.
The results of the Arizona audit have brought the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state into serious doubt, as voices across the country are calling for the state to decertify the results of the election. Should the state chose to act on the revelations revealed in the groundbreaking audit, Biden’s electoral vote count would be subtracted by 11, bringing his administration’s total count down to 295 electoral votes. (READ MORE: Trump Joins Call To Decertify Arizona’s 2020 Election Results)
“Massive fraud was found in the Arizona Forensic Audit,” said President Donald Trump in a September 24 statement. “The numbers are Election Changing!”
Arizona GOP Chair Dr Kelli Ward and State Senator Warren Petersen have called on the state’s Attorney General Mark Brnovich to take action following the release of the audit. “A failure to comply with the auditor, a brazen willingness to violate a legal subpoena, our Attorney General said that was against the law. That was truly alarming,” said Petersen.
“Furthermore, their willingness to expend significant resources, human capital, you name it, to block and to stop this audit. As I recall it was $18,000 for one of their audits that they spent money on. How much money have they spent trying to stop our audit? It has to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. That would be an interesting number to see.”
Exclusive: Physician ‘Horribly Injured’ After Pfizer Vaccine Pleads With Top U.S. Public Health Officials for Help — and Gets None
In an exclusive interview with The Defender, Dr. Danice Hertz said people like her who have been seriously injured by COVID vaccines are being dismissed or ignored, and because health officials won’t research their injuries and potential treatments, they have nowhere to turn.
Danice Hertz, a 64-year-old physician who was “horribly ill” and “incapacitated” after getting Pfizer’s COVID vaccine, claims U.S. health agencies are ignoring thousands of adverse events.
In an exclusive interview with The Defender, Hertz said if she could go back in time, she would not have gotten vaccinated.
Hertz said she has been in contact with numerous health agencies, physicians and researchers — including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Surgeon General and doctors at Harvard and Stanford universities and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles — in an effort to obtain help for the neurological injuries she suffered after getting the vaccine.
Hertz told The Defender there are thousands of people like her — who have been injured by COVID vaccines — who are suffering and need help, yet they’re ignored by mainstream media and U.S. health agencies. Meanwhile, COVID vaccine mandates are being rolled out for millions of Americans, with barely any discussion of the risks.
Hertz, a gastroenterologist who retired in October, got her first and only dose of Pfizer’s vaccine on Dec. 23, 2020. “There was an opportunity to get the vaccine because the hospital was giving it to every doctor,” Hertz said. “I didn’t know if I would need to go back into the workforce, so I ran to get it. Within 30 minutes, I started experiencing adverse effects.”
“I waited the 15 minutes you’re required to wait after you get it, and I went to the car and my face started burning,” Hertz said. “I drove home five minutes away, and by the time I walked through the door, I told my husband to call the paramedics.”
Hertz said within 24 hours she developed neurological symptoms, including severe paresthesias in her face, tongue, scalp, chest wall and limbs, as well as tremors, twitching, weakness, headaches, tinnitus and imbalance.
“My blood pressure was 186 over 127, which I’ve come to find is characteristic of these reactions,” Hertz said.
Hertz called her doctor, and took Benadryl and steroids in case she was having an allergic reaction. The next day her face turned completely numb.
Hertz said:
“My entire face felt like it was burning — like acid had been poured on my face. I had sensations throughout my body like it was vibrating. I felt like I had a tight band around my waist, chest pain and shortness of breath, and I went to bed for seven days.”
Hertz followed up with an allergist who treated her with steroids in case she was experiencing an allergic reaction to the vaccine. After a few weeks of no improvement, Hertz met with the chief neurologist at Cedars-Sinai.
“I saw six neurologists, five allergists, three rheumatologists, and no one had a clue,” Hertz said. “They did blood work, skin biopsies, an MRI and more, and nothing really came up. Unfortunately, if a doctor doesn’t know what’s wrong with you they’re done with you, though that’s not how I practice.”
Early on, when Hertz was evaluated by the first neurologist, the neurologist asked her about a “CISA consult” with the CDC.
According to the CDC’s website, the Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment (CISA) Project was established in 2001 to address the unmet vaccine safety clinical research needs of the U.S.
CISA is a national network of vaccine safety experts from the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office and seven medical research centers, plus other partners who address vaccine safety issues, conduct high-quality clinical research and assess complex clinical adverse events following vaccination.
The CISA Project also provides consultation to U.S. clinicians who have vaccine safety questions about a specific patient residing in the U.S. It also provides consultation to U.S. healthcare providers and public health partners on vaccine safety issues, and reviews clinical adverse events following immunization involving U.S.-licensed vaccines.
Hertz’s case was accepted into the CISA Project and was presented at the CDC’s grand rounds on March 23. Following the meeting, a physician forwarded a letter to Hertz suggesting she had “mast cell disorder.”
The CISA Project never followed up with her.
Mast cell activation syndrome (or mast cell disorder) is a condition in which a patient experiences repeated episodes of the symptoms of anaphylaxis — allergic symptoms such as hives, swelling, low blood pressure, difficulty breathing and severe diarrhea.
Systemic mastocytosis can cause skin lesions, pain in inner organs, bone pain, diarrhea and vomiting, weight loss and cardiovascular symptoms.
Hertz contacted the NIH and was evaluated remotely by Dr. Avindra Nath, a physician-scientist who specializes in neuroimmunology and is intramural clinical director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the NIH.
Hertz said she sent the NIH her blood for a study, because they were seeing quite a few patients like her. She also sent her blood to doctors at Stanford and Harvard for evaluation.
The Harvard physician also thought Hertz had mast cell activation, and put her on medications, but they didn’t help. “I’m now on a lot of medications for mast cell activation, but I’m still quite ill,” Hertz said.
“I don’t think that’s [mast cell activation] the whole explanation of what’s happening to us,” Hertz said. “I’m still here nine months later. I still don’t know what’s wrong with me. I am not as sick as I was initially, but I still get attacks where I feel like I’m being electrocuted, and my husband can actually feel my legs and arms vibrating.”
Hertz started a Facebook group that now has more than 160 people who have experienced neurological problems after a COVID vaccine, and can’t find help with their conditions.
“We have 160 people in this private Facebook group and we all know each other very well and are trying to help each other,” Hertz said. “Together we’ve been trying very very hard to get help.”
“Although my group consists of 160 members who had legitimate adverse reactions to COVID vaccines, there are other groups I’m aware of that have thousands,” she added.
Hertz said the mainstream media does not want to talk to anyone in her group who’s been injured because they’re not allowed to publish about vaccine injuries. “There are a lot of people who have had neurological reactions and a lot of people don’t know it’s vaccine-related,” she said.
Hertz and her group managed to get a Zoom meeting with Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at the FDA, to discuss their vaccine injuries, but were disappointed when he did not show up for the meeting.
Hertz explained:
“We had a very important Zoom meeting with Marks set up. I think it was the day they announced Pfizer’s vaccine was given full FDA approval. We [the group] didn’t know in advance it was going to be approved.
“We all prepared speeches to plead with Marks for help and he didn’t show up. The head of the communications showed up –– not a science person. She listened to us. Her response after listening to us for a full hour was, ‘well if you could give me your VAERS [Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System] number, I’ll have everyone look into your VAERS cases and we will see what we can do to help you.’”
Hertz said the FDA representative completely missed the point. “We were here to represent a large number of people who’ve been injured and need medical care, yet we got no response,” she said.
U.S. agencies are aware of vaccine injuries
Hertz said there are different theories for adverse reactions like hers, but she doesn’t think any have been proven or that enough research has been done.
“Some people think it’s an immune-mediated neuropathy where nerves are attacked by antibodies triggered by the vaccine,” Hertz said. “A doctor in California claims he found a spike protein produced by the vaccine in our monocytes — as he is doing research on members in the group.”
Hertz said several members of her private Facebook group went to the NIH for treatment, especially those who were paralyzed after getting the vaccine and can’t use their legs.
“The NIH is aware of what is happening but publicly has been dismissive of vaccine adverse reactions,” Hertz said.
“Early on when I was so sick in early January, I tried to figure out whom I should contact — and I did contact another gentleman at the NIH who is very high up in the NIAID [National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases],” Hertz said. “He told me they are ‘very aware’ of these reactions and are looking into them.”
“They knew about these adverse reactions before the vaccines were released from the clinical trials,” Hertz said.
In a Feb. 11 email exchange (see below) between Hertz and the NIH and NIAID (the agency led by Dr. Anthony Fauci) just two months after COVID vaccines received Emergency Use Authorization, an official acknowledged other reactions like the ones Hertz experienced had been reported and agencies were aware of them.
Hertz said she believes the NIH conveys a different position behind the scenes than the one the agency presents to the public. She said she believes it’s because the NIH is funded by the FDA.
Hertz has had several communication exchanges with Marks and Dr. Janet Woodcock, FDA acting commissioner. Neither Marks, nor Woodcock took Hertz’ concerns seriously, but instead, wished her the best with her debilitating vaccine injuries.
Hertz said Woodcock initially said she would like to help, but then responded again saying:
“I am so very sorry for your ordeal. It seems what is missing is what they call a ‘research definition,’ in other words a syndromic framework to describe what is being experienced, since it may not fit into current diagnostic categories. Possibly one of the academic researchers you have consulted could work on that. I don’t have insight into how this could be approached from a treatment standpoint.”
In other words, they are not interested in hearing about these reactions, Hertz said in an email to the NIH where she described the FDA’s response.
In the email, Hertz said:
“It is shocking to me that they completely blow off these reports of hundreds and thousands suffering with severe reactions. I would think they would want to know as much as possible about these reactions. Something is very wrong and these adverse reactions to the vaccines are being covered up. It is a great disservice to so many who are suffering like me.”
On Feb. 1, Hertz reached out to her team of physicians, the CDC and Marks regarding her experience and those of five other women who developed neurological problems after Pfizer’s vaccine. Hertz asked why their neurological reactions were being ignored.
Hertz wrote:
“As most of you know me, I am a 64-year-old gastroenterologist who suffered a terrible reaction 30 minutes after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer Covid vaccine. I am still very symptomatic almost 9 weeks out with severe paresthesias, chest tightness, tremor, dizziness, headaches. I am on the internet seeking information and came across an article in a journal Neurology Today. I wrote a comment after the article about my reaction. I have subsequently been contacted by five other women who have had very similar neurological reactions to mine and are all quite ill weeks after receiving their vaccines.
“They have had similar difficulty in getting appropriate medical care as the medical community knows nothing about these reactions. They, too, have reported their reactions to the drug companies, the regulatory governmental agencies, and there has been no response or documentation of their reactions.
“It is apparent that these neurological reactions are not unheard of. Why are they not being addressed? Why are our reports being ignored? We do not have any desire to frighten the public about the vaccine, but we all very much would like to get medical care and fear that we will not recover from these debilitating symptoms. We were all previously healthy. We are considering going to the media as we are terribly frustrated at the lack of transparency. Any advice from you would be greatly appreciated.”
Marks responded that he was “so sorry” to hear of her symptoms, that the FDA takes adverse events seriously and said he asked the pharmacovigilance team to follow up with her. To date, neither Marks, nor the pharmacovigilance team have followed up.
On March 17, an official at the NIH emailed Hertz — and copied Pfizer — acknowledging more than 1,000 neurological side effects reported to VAERS, and promising to present them to the scientific community, which to date, has not been done.
The official said:
“If you look at VAERS database there are more than 1,000 neurological side effects already reported but in order to present it to scientific community we have to gather as much information as we can before sending it out. I promise you we will report your issue and other cases that we are reviewing now and I really [would] appreciate if you kindly give us 1-2 weeks to collect comprehensive information before publicizing it.”
In an April 15 email to Marks, Woodcock, the CDC and NIH, Hertz said:
“Why is this being kept a secret? When will the public be made aware so we can get treatment? Will we recover? You have no idea the pain and suffering that many people have been going through. I wish you could experience what we are experiencing to understand my pleas. It is very difficult to live this way. At times, I am in so much pain that I don’t want to live. It is so shocking to me that this suppression of information and the truth can occur in our country. As a physician, I never imagined this could occur here in the United States, with our great medical system and regulatory agencies.
“Please bring these reactions public so medical care will be available to the many like me who are suffering agonizing symptoms resulting from these vaccines. Eventually, the truth will be told. We need help now.”
Hertz said she received a response from Woodcock, who said the FDA is “looking into these neurological reactions.” But there has been no follow-through or acknowledgement of her injuries — or the injuries thousands of others are experiencing.
Hertz, who is pro-vaccine, said she is concerned the FDA, NIH, CDC and pharmaceutical companies are ignoring vaccine injuries.
Hertz explained:
“We want the medical community to be educated about these reactions so they don’t dismiss us, so that they can validate what has happened and treat us. We need research done to discover what happened and to create treatments. And now there are vaccine mandates and people like us cannot get vaccinated again. There are many in my group who are physicians and cannot go back to work until they’re fully vaccinated but they can’t go back to work and it’s not easy to get an exemption. We need to look at that.”
On May 24, Hertz and 79 other individuals who were injured by Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca (U.S. clinical trial) vaccines wrote a letter to the Dr. Vivek Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General and the White House pleading with them to validate their reactions so they could be addressed properly.
The group stated:
“We have all shared very similar adverse reactions to these vaccines. We were previously healthy individuals. Our reactions occurred within minutes to a few short days after receiving the vaccines. There is no doubt that the vaccines caused our reactions.
“Our reactions have included nausea, weight loss, heartburn, diarrhea/constipation, sleep disturbances, chest pains, headaches, facial and sinus pressure, dizziness, severe weakness and fatigue, painful paresthesias throughout the body, severe painful paresthesias focused on the face, tongue and scalp, internal vibrations and tremors, muscle twitching and muscle spasms, brain fog and mental status changes, memory loss, tinnitus, impaired/blurred vision, elevated blood pressure and heart rate, bulging veins, heart issues and weakness. Several in our group have experienced paralysis of the lower extremities and to this day remain paralyzed. Many of us have been ill for five months.”
Nobody in the group had any of the above symptoms prior to getting a COVID vaccine.
“They [the injuries] are leaving the majority of us disabled and unable to return to our jobs as medical and other healthcare professionals, parents, teachers, scientists, etc.,” the group wrote.
“Not only have we been impacted physically, but mentally and financially as well. Most of us are unable to work, or are on a reduced work schedule. This is continuing for us without any end in sight.”
“WE NEED HELP,” the group wrote. “The constant messaging that the vaccines are safe and with zero acknowledgement of these adverse neurological reactions has made it impossible for us to obtain medical treatment. We are ‘collateral damage’ in the effort to stop the pandemic.”
The group told Murthy that until adverse reactions are acknowledged, it will be impossible to receive care. “We are pleading that you make the medical community aware of these reactions so we can get the medical care we need,” the group wrote.
U.S. health agencies don’t want people to know about vaccine injuries
When asked by The Defender why the U.S. health agencies would cover up vaccine adverse events, suppress research and fail to provide those injured with adequate treatments, Hertz responded:
“The pandemic is horrible. It’s a real problem. But they made calculated decisions on how to protect the most people, and I don’t know who made these decisions but they’ve decided vaccinating as many people as possible will save more people than attending to the vaccine injuries. I think they do not want to create fear or panic and to publicize the fact there are injuries.”
Hertz said she believes what’s happening with COVID vaccines is a crime against our country.
“If there is anything I could do, I would go back in time and take that shot out of me,” Hertz said. “I took every single vaccine that ever came out, and I had never had a reaction to anything. I went in that day without any concern because it had been cleared by the FDA. I feel like an idiot.”
Hertz said she submitted several reports to VAERS, but the CDC never followed up. She received a call from one clerical person just confirming the report and she told them, “I am a physician. I am severely ill. I’m fearful of my life. I did report to Pfizer in written and verbal form, and nobody has ever called me back.”
Hertz reached out to Dr. Marks again on Feb. 23 after not receiving a follow-up as promised, and another official with CBER responded. The official referred her to VAERS, and told her how to request information about her adverse event and how to obtain a copy of the report. He also suggested she request a CISA consult from the CDC, which she had already done.
Hertz responded:
“Thank you for your recommendation to contact VAERS. Unfortunately this is not helpful as it has already been done. Hopefully, you will become aware of the injuries some people are experiencing from the vaccines and educate the medical community so that medical care will be available for people like me.”
The official asked whether she had filled out her report correctly and that he was under the impression VAERS will contact her if “follow-up information is needed.”
Hertz said she provided contact information on the VAERS report she filed and was “fully aware of the many hundreds of reports with similar reactions in the VAERS database,” as were the people in her group with similar severe reactions. “We and our physicians have requested CDC CISA consults which have been completely unhelpful,” Hertz said.
Hertz explained:
“I would think the FDA and CDC would want to know about these reactions. We have all been seriously ill. It is truly shocking that our reports have not been taken seriously and that the FDA is not asking for follow up from us. There is apparently no concern about people being injured by the vaccines.
“The suggestions you make in both of your emails to me are nonsensical. I am a physician, not a moron. You skirt the issue that there are many of us that have been injured by the vaccines and are being ignored. Your emails are insulting and demeaning. You are completely missing my point. I guess that is just representative of how seriously you are taking the fact that there are many people being severely injured by the Covid vaccines and are struggling to get validation and medical care because these reactions are being hidden from the medical community.
“This is truly shocking. Having practiced medicine for 33 years, I always had faith in our regulatory agencies. Now, having been seriously injured by this vaccine and struggling to be taken seriously and get medical assistance, I no longer have faith.”
On July 2, Hertz reached out to one of her contacts at the NIH again asking if there was anyone studying adverse reactions like hers, and the group she represents. She wrote, “We have been abandoned by the government, and the medical community knows nothing about these adverse reactions. We desperately need medical help.”
There was no response.
Hertz said that as a physician, she is pro-vaccine but she is also “pro-informed consent,” and she has always given that to her patients.
“Whatever I did to them, if it was a procedure like a colonoscopy or prescribing a medication, I always provided them with the risks involved,” Hertz said. “There has been no informed consent with the [COVID] vaccine, and if I would have known I never would have gotten it.”
Hertz said the public needs to be given accurate and complete information about the risks and the ability to make a choice. “To make that choice for them is wrong,” she said.
Children’s Health Defense asks anyone who has experienced an adverse reaction, to any vaccine, to file a report following these three steps.