Washington, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) issued the following statement after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a potential link between the Pfizer COVID-19 bivalent vaccine and strokes in adults over 65 years of age: 

“If there’s one lesson that the CDC and FDA should have taken away from the pandemic, it’s the importance of providing honest, clear, precise, and timely information to the American people about the potential risks and benefits of COVID-19 interventions, including vaccination. The lack of transparency over the past three years has broken Americans’ trust in our public health agencies. 

“CDC and FDA have systems in place to monitor vaccine safety that have identified this preliminary signal. Now these agencies must rapidly investigate, in an open and transparent manner, whether or not the vaccine may have contributed to the reported strokes. 

“Both agencies will be testifying before the Energy and Commerce Committee so we can begin the long road of helping to restore Americans’ trust in our public health agencies.”