Social media censorship of COVID-19 vaccine injuries prompted by the Biden administration led to suicides, according to vaccine victims and their advocates.

Many people have experienced injuries from COVID vaccines, and some of them were unable to find support, says a U.S. senator and other advocates for vaccine victims. Social media censorship made it difficult for these victims to connect with support groups online, which resulted in some committing suicide.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show on Tuesday that Facebook is in the process of sending him information regarding the censorship of COVID vaccine injury groups.

“We have heard from representatives of Facebook,” Johnson said. “They understand now that they need to take this very seriously. And the reason they need to is what they did, apparently on the direction of federal officials, is they took down these group chats of the vaccine-injured – people that were being gaslit, they were being ignored by their own health providers, they couldn't get treatment, they were suffering severe adverse events, and the only sense of support they had was through these Facebook chat groups.

“And after my panels [on COVID], those chat groups were taken down, and the result of that is people committed suicide. They had no support whatsoever, they were in utter despair, and the result of Facebook's action, at the behest of the federal officials, was that people took their own lives,” he continued.

Johnson said that he wants Facebook to tell him “what happened, who within their organization participated, why they participated in taking down these groups repeatedly, and at whose direction from the federal government was this.”

“Who in the federal government forced this censorship on Facebook, and as result, resulted in the deaths of American citizens who were injured by the vaccine that was pushed and mandated on them?” he asked.

Johnson, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, sent a letter last week to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, demanding he turn over Facebook's records on its alleged censorship of COVID-19 vaccine-injured people. 

Facebook has been accused of censoring posts about injuries from the COVID vaccines, and even allegedly shutting down support groups for people who claimed they were injured by the vaccines.

Silencing anything critical of the COVID cartel and the vaccines

The alleged censorship was recently chronicled in the November 2024 book, "Worth a Shot?", which claimed that within five days of Johnson's roundtable on COVID vaccine injuries in 2021, a large support group for injured people on Facebook was unexpectedly closed. 

The book also claimed that users who posted about their vaccine injuries were "shadow-banned" on the platform, meaning their posts were not as visible, and warnings would be added to posts on the injury that “urged the viewer to go to Facebook’s Community Guidelines to get accurate information about the COVID vaccine," said Johnson.

“Facebook’s alleged censorship campaign against the vaccine injured, as detailed in 'Worth a Shot?' is the latest evidence of Big Tech’s efforts, in conjunction with the Biden administration, to silence anything critical of the COVID cartel and the vaccines," Johnson wrote in the letter. The letter asks Zuckerberg to provide all records that show the extent of the Biden administration's pressure campaign by Feb. 18.

Zuckerberg has not commented on the letter, but recently blamed the censorship on the Biden administration for pressuring the platform, while on an episode of Joe Rogan's podcast last month.

Facebook didn’t respond to a request for comment by publishing time.

"Censorship definitely had serious consequences"

Brianne Dressen, co-chairman of the COVID vaccine injury support nonprofit React19, told Just the News on Tuesday that social media censorship negatively impacted those with COVID vaccine injuries.

“The censorship definitely had serious consequences,” Dressen said. “The suicides are a result of not knowing there is support, not being able to reach out for help to access the support that does exist and being removed from support networks that were some people's only lifeline.”

Thus far, there have been seven publicly confirmed suicides of people who had COVID vaccine injuries, she explained. However, she knows of at least 23 who committed suicide.

“It is a continual struggle for people,” Dressen said. “People have moved on from Covid, but those suffering from long Covid and the Covid vaccines are trapped suffering both physically and emotionally. We can't move on. We are stuck in Covid nightmare.”

Only the approved narrative allowed

Robert Fusaro, who says he was injured by a COVID vaccine, told Just the News on Wednesday that when Facebook strongly censored COVID vaccine information, code words had to be used to discuss the vaccine on the social media platform.

“They’d shut down groups” discussing the vaccines’ effects, Fusaro said. It was “happening not just on Facebook, but Twitter at the time, Instagram, and Reddit,” he added. Fusaro noted that there was "censorship on viral groups,” and if people mentioned “‘vaccine injuries,’ they’d kick us out of those groups,” because the social media platforms only “wanted a narrative of vaccines being safe and effective.”

“It was very difficult,” he added. “At the time, people were very desperate, couldn't figure it out, and were all suffering greatly from different things.”

Fusaro explained that he moderates a Facebook group “for severe vaccine injuries,” and while “they don't censor as much,” the social media platform places “a lot of warnings about misinformation,” which can result in people being “kicked off for it.”

Since the information that Facebook claims is misinformation is actually "factual and verifiable," Fusaro said that he just ignores the warnings.

He said that he’s been bedridden and housebound for 3.5 years due to the issues he developed from a COVID vaccine. Before that, he had been in good health, and recovered from COVID in 2020. However, he got the vaccine 16 months after having COVID so he could travel to Italy for work, which resulted in eight hospitalizations in about three months.

Fusaro said that he met Mike Tilaro, who was also injured by a COVID vaccine, through Facebook group chats and other social media platforms. Tilaro "didn't have a mental illness” and was successful in his career, but “suffered so badly” after getting a COVID vaccine.

Rash of suicides

Experiencing burning sensations and having twitching tremors, Tilaro would “talk about suicide all the time – we all did, because we were suffering so badly, saying we just want to die, not live like this,” Fusaro said, but they would “encourage each other to hang on.”

Tilaro tried “a bunch of different interventions, and went to neurologists,” but “many dismissed him,” Fusaro said. There was “nothing working for us severely injured,” he added, because they “couldn't communicate online.”

Tilaro went to Switzerland for physician-assisted suicide in October 2022, Fusaro said. He sent an email to Fusaro and others with his suicide note, but by the time they received it and tried to contact him, he had already died.

Liz Whitehead, who lives in the UK, told Just the News on Wednesday about her father who was a pharmacist and committed suicide in October 2023 after being injured by a COVID vaccine. Whitehead’s father, John Cross, "didn't know anybody was out there to support him,” and “felt like he was alone,” she said.

Cross "believed strongly” in getting vaccines and didn't want to “fuel hesitancy” in getting them, Whitehead added. He “trusted the vaccine would work, and when he had an adverse reaction, he believed the government would do what was best for him, and they didn't,” she said.

The UK has the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme, which exists for people who have a serious adverse reaction to a vaccine, so they can receive 120,000 British pounds in payment. Cross applied for the Vaccine Damage Payment but was denied 22 months later because he was determined to not be at least 60% disabled from the vaccine.

“They rejected his claim because he wasn't disabled enough, and when his mood lowered, he took his own life,” Whitehead said.

Felt let down, worthless, that it was all pointless

Cross was vaccinated in January 2021, and two weeks later, had a numbness that began in his feet and made its way up through his body so even his eyes were paralyzed. He was hospitalized for eight months and wasn’t allowed any visitors due to pandemic restrictions, his daughter explained. Initially, he was treated for Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), but was then diagnosed with Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIPD).

Cross did a plasma exchange every two weeks, which is a similar treatment to dialysis, and learned to eat, talk, and walk again by working with physiotherapists. However, after being rejected for the Vaccine Damage Payment, “he felt let down, said he felt worthless, that it was all pointless,” Whitehead said.

Cross’ family appealed the decision by the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme to reject his claim, but were told that the vaccine was no longer determined to be the cause of Cross’ medical issues, Whitehead explained. “Now we’re fighting it, more upset at the system for denying causation,” Whitehead said, adding that they’re “trying to find a neurologist to get us to tribunal now.”

If Cross had spoken out, then he wouldn't have done his “pharmaceutical duty to support” the vaccine effort,” Whitehead said.

“You shut up, and people hate you,” she said, but “then you tell people, and they don't believe you, and think you’re trying to make them not get the vaccine, so you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.”

When the “government deemed him not disabled enough,” he “felt worthless and low, and didn’t know where to turn – didn't know support groups were out there,” Whitehead said.