We begin today with a troubling reality. The government pulled out all the stops promoting Covid vaccines but dropped the ball on a key aspect: tracking adverse events from the vaccines and developing treatments. Today, the U.S. still lacks a national mandate requiring doctors to report every potential adverse event. And there’s been no robust push to encourage patients to document and submit all potential reactions, including those emerging months or even years later. Today, we spotlight an extraordinary effort of a former public health insider who’s traded his desk for the open road to sound the alarm.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

At age 68, Ron Owens is waging a one-man crusade from the seat of a Can-Am Spyder motorcycle.

Ron Owens: So I am urging the Board of Supervisors to stop promoting, stop administering, and stop distributing the Covid-19 vaccine.

On this day, we’re at the site of his former employer: the California Department of Public Health or CDPH.

Sharyl: Did you work in this building?

Owens: Yes.

Owens was hired on as an information officer here back in 2009. But, when Covid hit, it changed everything. Owens first clashed with his CDPH bosses, he says, after reading scientific data on ivermectin’s effectiveness for treating Covid—and sharing the information in an internal email.

Owens: The tonality of my email was, “This is great news. We can take the lead not only here in California but in the United States indeed the world, with tackling Covid.”

Sharyl: With ivermectin?

Owens: With properly dosed ivermectin. But their response was “CDPH does not approve treatment. That’s something that the FDA does.” And I’m thinking, “Why are we punting to a government agency— what, two, 3000 miles away? We have a problem here in California, let’s think out of the box.”

Owens says conducting research and thinking outside-the-box were his duty. But he was admonished for including senior leadership on his email.

Sharyl: What was your takeaway after that response?

Owens: I was exasperated, I was angry, disgusted too. And I was thinking “We have the ability to help treat many, many people, and yet we’re hiding behind bureaucracy.”

Tensions escalated when Owens uncovered concerning scientific data on Covid vaccine risks and, again, alerted his superiors.

Owens: So the first response was, “Thank you, Ron, for your email,” from my deputy director. The second response was, basically say, “Look, we’re tired of your emails. We’re not gonna receive any more of your emails. Number one. Number two, if you have any questions about Covid-19 policy, here’s an intranet link. Number three, we’re concerned that you’re using state resources and state time to do your research. It was a veiled threat.

Sharyl: You saw that as part of your job though, right?

Owens: Yes. Matter of fact, in the email, both emails that I sent in April of 2022, and in October of 2022, I cite where this is what I’m supposed to do according to my duty statement. They muzzled me, but I didn’t want to muzzle myself. So I decided to retire. ’cause I felt like if I had to stayed there, kept quiet, kept my nose to the grindstone pad my pension, quite frankly, it would’ve constituted me being complicit with allegedly committing crimes against humanity for withholding injury, sparing lifesaving information from 40 million Californians.

Owens hasn’t been quiet since. In 2024, he hit the road with the goal of personally warning all 58 of California’s county Boards of Supervisors.

Owens (October 9, 2025): At minimum, you need to alert your residents that the Covid 19 vaccines are not safe and are not effective.

Owens (October 14, 2025): I would encourage you to direct your county health officer to encourage them to stop promoting, stop administering, and stop distributing Covid-19 vaccines.

Before and after his appearances before county boards, he chronicles his journey on social media.

Owens (November 4, 2025): Today is November 4th, 2025, and I am here in San Luis Obispo.

Owens (July 8, 2025): Thus far I have traveled more than 9,200 miles on my Can-Am Spyder motorcycle all over California.

Owens (October 14, 2025): Then got to head about what 316-17 miles back to Sacramento County.

He often teams up with former Butte County public health worker Julie Threet.

Owens: Hello this is Ronald F. Owens Jr.

Julie Threet: And Julie Threet.

Threet says she suffered heart and vascular problems after Covid shots, and lost her formerly healthy mother to sudden death after four vaccines doses.

Threet (October 21, 2025): Thirty third county, my 101st public comment above the dangers of the Covid-19 vaccine.

On his travels, Owens points to disturbing stats from the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System or VAERS. Experts say only a fraction of vaccine side effects, as little as 1%, are actually reported to VAERS. Even so, that database and scientific studies have unearthed a spectrum of damaging adverse events linked to Covid shots: heart problems such as myocarditis and pericarditis, and heart attacks; blood clots; life-threatening paralysis; brain issues; menstrual problems; immune disorders; multisystem inflammatory syndrome causing swollen and inflamed organs; strokes; hearing and vision problems, and more.

The CDC has backed off it’s hardline Covid-vaccines-for-all recommendations. Currently, the agency says the decision should be individual and based on risk-benefit calculations in consultation with health professionals. But vaccine advocates say Covid vaccines would not be allowed on the market if the government didn’t consider them safe and effective. And they claim the vaccines make people less likely to become seriously ill from Covid.

We contacted Owens’ former employer, the California Department of Public Health, and they declined to respond to his allegations. A spokesman said, “The information or testimony he has provided in similar public venues are his opinions only and are not affiliated with the Department.”

Before Covid, Owens had a different health scare: blood clots found in both lungs. Today he reflects on what might have happened if he hadn’t been able to avoid getting vaccinated.

Owens: I was working at home by then and I have a preexisting medical condition. If I take the Covid-19 vaccine, I may not be here. And I represent a demographic of people who put themselves in danger by taking the vaccine, and yet you’re going to force them, coerce them to take it even though it could be injurious to them.

Fueled by conviction, Owens revs up for the next county as the road and mission call again.

Sharyl (on-camera): Owens has now spoken in front of 51 of California’s 58 county boards, putting more than 14,000 miles on his Spyder. He thinks may be the only Californian in the state’s 175-year history to travel to and speak before all 58 county Boards of Supervisors.

Watch video here.