Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) is demanding that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) prioritize Veteran care after learning of first-hand accounts from VA employees, who say Biden’s coercive vaccine mandates are causing VA workforce shortages, ultimately limiting care for veterans.
In response to these accounts, Johnson submitted a letter to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Denis McDonough stating the following:
On May 27, 2022, I met with a group of Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees regarding their concerns with the quality of care received by veterans. These health care professionals described the significant workforce shortages at the VA facilities in Wisconsin and Michigan and that the vaccine mandate is only exacerbating these shortages. The VA owes the public and our veterans answers about the steps the Department is taking to address the workforce issues and to provide the highest quality care to the finest among us.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin)
The letter contained five testimonials from Wisconsin and Michigan VA employees for Secretary McDonough to review.
Senator Johnson also presented whistleblower data he recently obtained demonstrating the ineffectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccines’ ability to prevent infection.
“Based on whistleblower data from the Milwaukee VAMC facility dashboard census count between October 22, 2021 and March 8, 2022, for 31 of the 54 days I received daily reports, at least 80 percent of VA employees who tested positive for Covid-19 were vaccinated. For 8 of those 54 days, 100 percent of VA employees who tested positive for Covid-19 were vaccinated.
The continuation of care for our veterans should be our top priority, not politically motivated policies like vaccine mandates.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin)
The letter, testimonials and data can be found here, and the full text of the letter is below.
June 13, 2022
The Honorable Denis R. McDonough
Secretary
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Dear Secretary McDonough:
On May 27, 2022, I met with a group of Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees regarding their concerns with the quality of care received by veterans. These health care professionals described the significant workforce shortages at the VA facilities in Wisconsin and Michigan and that the vaccine mandate is only exacerbating these shortages. The VA owes the public and our veterans answers about the steps the Department is taking to address the workforce issues and to provide the highest quality care to the finest among us.
On July 26, 2021, you announced that COVID-19 vaccines would be mandatory for VA employees.[1] You stated that the “VA is taking this necessary step to keep the Veterans it serves safe.”[2] You continued, “[w]henever a Veteran or VA employee sets foot in a VA facility, they deserve to know that we have done everything in our power to protect them from COVID-19. With this mandate, we can once again make—and keep—that fundamental promise.”[3]
However, after speaking with VA health care personnel, it does not appear that the vaccine mandate is protecting veterans or VA employees from COVID-19. These dedicated professionals described how they cared for our veterans during the entirety of the pandemic when proper safety equipment was not available. The VA employees shared how the VA has now deemed their workplaces “high risk” and require vaccination in order to carry out their jobs. One nurse stated, “[w]hen [personal protective equipment] was sparse, when COVID surges hit our facility multiple times, there was no concern for my vaccination status.” The nurse also stated it is “abundantly clear that the vaccine is being used to fit an agenda, not safety.” Most importantly, these health care professionals shared their concern that the Biden administration cares more about mandating vaccines for VA employees regardless of whether it comes at the cost of those employees’ jobs or potentially limiting care for veterans. In order for you to understand the impact of the policies you have implemented, I hope you will take the time to read the enclosed testimonials of VA health care professionals from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Iron Mountain, Michigan.
In addition to these testimonials, enclosed data from the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center in Milwaukee (Milwaukee VAMC) reveals the failure of the vaccine mandate to protect VA employees and veterans from COVID-19. Based on whistleblower data from the Milwaukee VAMC facility dashboard census count between October 22, 2021 and March 8, 2022, for 31 of the 54 days I received daily reports, at least 80 percent of VA employees who tested positive for COVID-19 were vaccinated.[4] For 8 of those 54 days, 100 percent of VA employees who tested positive for COVID-19 were vaccinated.[5]
Although this data is only from one Wisconsin VA facility, it demonstrates the futility of a vaccine mandate. The COVID-19 vaccines do not prevent transmission and therefore, a vaccine mandate is pointless. However, the Biden administration refuses to reevaluate the costs and benefits, or the unintended consequences of vaccine mandates. An analysis recently published in the BMJ Global Health journal found that “mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policies have had damaging effects on public trust, vaccine confidence, political polarization, human rights, inequities and social wellbeing.”[6] The authors of that analysis added, “[w]e question the effectiveness and consequences of coercive vaccination policy in pandemic response and urge the research community and policymakers to return to non-discriminatory, trust-based public health approaches.”[7]
The VA employees I met with are concerned that the Biden administration’s rigid position on the vaccine mandate will harm the veterans they care for. The VA already faced significant workforce issues prior to the mandate.[8] With the mandate in place, as many as 11 percent of the VA workforce may be at risk of disciplinary action, reassignment or losing their jobs.[9]
The continuation of care for our veterans should be our top priority, not politically motivated policies like vaccine mandates. In an effort to provide transparency to the American people regarding the VA’s vaccine mandate, please provide the following information:
1. The total number of unvaccinated VA employees as of June 13, 2022.
2. The total number of VA employees reassigned due to the mandate.
3. The total number of VA employees separated due to the mandate.
4. The total number of VA employees who received disciplinary action due to the mandate.
5. An analysis by occupation at the VA for each unvaccinated worker.
6. If it is true that 11 percent of the VA workforce is unvaccinated, how will the VA maintain care for veterans if those individuals are reassigned or fired?
7. What is the purpose of requiring COVID-19 vaccination if it does not prevent infection and spread?
8. A monthly breakdown of COVID-19 cases, hospitalization and death by vaccination status for VA employees and veterans receiving care at the VA from March 2020 to present.
Please provide this information as soon as possible but no later than June 27, 2022. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
###
[1] See Press Release, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Jul. 26, 2021, available at https://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/pressrelease.cfm?id=5696#:~:text=VA%20is%20taking%20this%20necessary,the%20country%2C%E2%80%9D%20McDonough%20said.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] The facility dashboard data provided by the whistleblower and data charts based on that information are enclosed.
[5] Id.
[6] Bardosh, K., Figueiredo, A. de, Gur-Arie, R., Jamrozik, E., Doidge, J., Lemmens, T., Keshavjee, S., Graham, J. E., & Baral, S. (2022, May 1). The unintended consequences of covid-19 vaccine policy: Why mandates, passports and restrictions may cause more harm than good. BMJ Global Health. Retrieved June 5, 2022, from https://gh.bmj.com/content/7/5/e008684.
[7] Id.
[8] Office of Inspector Gen., U.S. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, Rep. No. 21-01357-271, OIG Determination of Veterans Health Administration’s Occupational Staffing Shortages Fiscal Year 2021, available at https://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-21-01357-271.pdf.
[9] Eric Katz, VA Has Fired Just Six Employees Over Its COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate, Government Executive, Apr. 25, 2022, available at https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2022/04/va-has-fired-just-six-employees-over-its-covid-19-vaccine-mandate/366081/.
Wow…more proof of shenanigans…which we knew from Day 1…and still nobody held to account. We prove Covid scams (masks, “vaccines,” boosters, etc.), we prove Dem election theft (please…if you haven’t accepted the mountains of proof by now…my listing it won’t help), we prove Biden corruption (Hunter’s laptops…the lost (NOT stolen) diary (and MUCH MUCH more), we prove more and more Democrat crime…and NEVER any consequences.
I am one (along with, as far as I know, every election official in every swing state, who doesn’t believe the election was stolen. I have asked many times in this newsletter for counterevidence and have received none so far. So humor me, and provide some. If there are truly “mountains” of such evidence, it shouldn’t be hard to do at all. Thanks.
For starters, you might try researching election fraud over the last two or more decades. Even HRC admitted that election rigging was a serious problem. Then I encourage you to watch the recent documentary: “2,000 mules”–this should educate you about the factual logistics regarding those people who were paid to stuff ballot boxes. I might also add, in terms of pure logic and evidence in plain sight: How many people attended the Trump rallies vs the Biden rallies?
I might also add that the Dominion corporation has been implicated in influencing election outcomes in countries like Venezuela. And lastly, there are volumes of credible well researched accounts of deliberate election tampering in all the Banana Republics(and dare I add that the US seems to be on the same path.)
Thanks for the response. I copied your response and added my comments in parentheses.
For starters, you might try researching election fraud over the last two or more decades (I’m not sure why I would do that. The issue is the 2020 election, not any previous elections. But I have “researched” every substantive (I’m defining “substantive” to mean something that could be evaluated, not something such as “we all know it was stolen”) 2020 voter fraud claim – such as the claim that more mail-in ballots were returned in Pennsylvania than were mailed out. In every single case, the claims have turned out to be bogus. Besides, as I have said numerous times, it’s up to those claiming fraud to provide the evidence – just as it is in a court of law. That’s what I have been waiting for.) . Even HRC admitted that election rigging was a serious problem. (I am not aware of any such statement by HRC. But context is required for this statement. It’s too amorphous to be evaluated on its own. For example, what did HRC mean by “rigging”? Was she was referring to unfair media coverage or Comey’s publicly reopening the e-mail case against her? Because that is completely different than what Trump supporters are claiming – that the mechanics of the election were compromised.) Then I encourage you to watch the recent documentary: “2,000 mules”–this should educate you about the factual logistics regarding those people who were paid to stuff ballot boxes. (I have not seen 2000 Mules but I have read at least six reviews of it. And they all say the same thing. It proves nothing other than a bunch of people walked by ballot collection boxes. Even SA admitted that there were no specific mules identified and nothing that tied any of it to any specific organization. Barr said he was “unimpressed”. He also said “”The premise that if you go by a box, five boxes or whatever it was, you know that that’s a mule is just indefensible.” And the kicker is that even if the votes were illegally harvested, they are still legal votes. Even Fox shied away from this thing.) I might also add, in terms of pure logic and evidence in plain sight: How many people attended the Trump rallies vs the Biden rallies? (That is a completely irrelevant measure. How many people who voted for Trump actually attended any of his rallies? This is akin to the claim that people make that Biden couldn’t have won because they don’t know anyone who voted for Biden. Extrapolating a small sample (and the number of people who attended Trump rallies is a small percentage of the 74,000,000+ votes he got) to a national statistical picture simply isn’t valid. If the rally attendance claim was being made in support of some “enthusiasm” statistic, I would agree. But it’s not.)
I might also add that the Dominion corporation has been implicated in influencing election outcomes in countries like Venezuela (That is news to me. How about some specifics? This sounds like the story that Powell told about Dominion being founded by friends of Chavez, a story that no one – and I mean literally no one – still believes. Powell has even tried to walk that back with her “no one would believe my statement was based on evidence” court submission. And if Dominion flipped votes, why didn’t the hand recounts in Georgia and Arizona discover that? But even if this claim were true – and it’s not – what does that have to do with the 2020 election? The question to be answered is how Dominion “influenced” the 2020 election outcome in the United States. And you need specific details, not some general charge that they have done bad things in other countries.). And lastly, there are volumes of credible well researched accounts of deliberate election tampering in all the Banana Republics(and dare I add that the US seems to be on the same path.) (Election tampering in other countries is certainly a fact, but is certainly another irrelevant piece of information. What does the election process in other countries have to do with the one in the United States?)
In summary, your charges are not nearly specific enough to be taken seriously. Think about it this way. If you want to accuse a bunch of people of treason for rigging the elections, shouldn’t you have something that would stand up in court? None of these charges would (as has been shown more than 60 times). Who are the people involved? How did they pull it off? Why has no hard evidence yet been found despite the plethora of recounts and audits and deep dives? The lack of answers to those questions tell you why the election wasn’t stolen. It’s just common sense.
But I continue to ask – where is the (hard) evidence?
So this is the last data that the UK has published on the incidence on breakthrough infection in their weekly “COVID-19 vaccine weekly surveillance reports”. Google to find the full data.
In April and subsequently, they do not provide the breakthrough case data in their weekly surveillance data….mostly because it is so bad.
This is data based on cases per 100,000 so showing true incidence in a fully captured, public health population.
For the 18-29 year range, If you are vaccinated, you are 3.3 times more likely to test positive than someone who is not vaccinated.
Of course they don’t include those who have already recovered from Covid. It would be close to zero.
It only gets worse….
30-39 – 3.9 times more likely to test positive if vaccinated.
40-49 – 4,1 times more likely to test positive if vaccinated.
50-59 – 4.2 times more likely to test positive if vaccinated.
60-69 – 4.9 times more likely to test positive if vaccinated.
70-79 – 4.0 times more likely to test positive if vaccinated.
80-100 2,6 times more likely to test positive if vaccinated.
Do you wonder why they stopped reporting this data in April when they had been reporting this every week throughout the Pandemic? Enquiring minds would like to know.
The VA also has a mask mandate. They will not treat veterans if they decline use of a mask. It’s been over two years now. I have made repeated requests for the name of the bureaucrat who has issued this directive but have not received a reply.
Ironically, one of the studies that debunked the need for masks was funded by the VA.
I’m a US Army veteran who retired from a civilian career after military discharge. I volunteered at my Sacramento VA facility to help out staff and my fellow veteran patients.
I was forced out of my volunteer position because I failed to show proof of COVIID innoculation. Yes, even volunteers are required to have the shot at VS facilities.
Too bad for our vets and the overworked staff. By the way, I had COVID and survived. I’m 67 years young. This Democrat administration simply ruins everything they stick their noses into.
Contempary genocide.