Whistleblower Lawsuit Alleging Hospital Failed to Report COVID Vaccine Injuries Gets Green Light

A whistleblower lawsuit alleging a New York hospital system violated federal law by failing to report adverse events connected to the COVID-19 vaccines can proceed, a federal court ruled last week.

by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

A whistleblower lawsuit alleging a New York hospital system violated federal law by failing to report adverse events connected to the COVID-19 vaccines can proceed, a federal court ruled last week. Bloomberg Law first reported the story Thursday.

Deborah Conrad worked as a physician’s assistant at United Memorial Medical Center (UMMC), part of Rochester Regional Health (RRH), until she was fired in October 2021. Conrad said she was fired for reporting vaccine-related adverse events to the federally run Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

Conrad sued the hospital in May 2023, under the False Claims Act — a federal law that allows whistleblowers to file a lawsuit on behalf of the U.S. government against an entity for allegedly defrauding the government and profiting from taxpayer funds. She filed an amended complaint in November 2024.

False Claims Act cases are initially sealed while the government investigates the cases and determines if it will intervene. In February 2024, the U.S. government decided not to intervene. The lawsuit subsequently survived two motions by the defendants to dismiss the case.

The complaint alleges that RRH violated the False Claims Act because it “knowingly” failed to report adverse events to VAERS despite being required to do so — and nevertheless “submitted claims for payment” for COVID-19 vaccine administration to the U.S. government.

Conrad also alleged that she saw RRH patients suffer serious adverse events following the COVID-19 vaccine and that she reported them to VAERS because she “had concerns” about RRH’s reporting efforts.

U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra Jr. of the Western District of New York ruled that Conrad had presented enough evidence to support her claims of fraud under the False Claims Act, and of retaliation under both the False Claims Act and New York labor law.

“I’m very excited to move forward into discovery,” Conrad said after the ruling. “It’s been a long time, and I’m excited to be able to tell my story.”

Conrad said the VAERS system is a “huge safety net to assure that these things that we’re giving to the public are safe. I sounded the alarm that there was potential harm being done, and as a result I was silenced. And that just can’t be allowed.”

She’s seeking job reinstatement and back pay for herself, and civil penalties on behalf of the U.S. government.

Officials accuse Conrad of sounding ‘anti-vaxxy’

All institutions in the U.S. that administered the COVID-19 vaccines, including RCC and UMMC, signed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) COVID-19 Vaccination Program Provider Agreement, according to the complaint.

Under the agreement, organizations that administered the shots and received compensation for doing so from the federal government were required to “report moderate and severe adverse events following vaccination” to VAERS. The agreement stated that non-compliance would violate the False Claims Act and other related federal laws.

The RRH “COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic Playbook,” published May 4, 2021, also states that COVID vaccine providers were required to report serious adverse events and post-vaccination hospitalizations and deaths to VAERS, “even if they are not sure if the vaccination caused the event.”

Conrad submitted these documents as part of her complaint, along with several emails with supervisors and staff at RRH and UMMC chronicling her communication with her employers about adverse events and deaths she observed and efforts to report those incidents to VAERS.

“I have now reported 2 deaths possibly related to the vaccines. Nearly every day I am reporting cases to Vaers with some cases additionally being reported to Pfizer and moderna as well,” Conrad wrote in a March 23, 2021, email.

In an April 15, 2021, email, Conrad reported even higher numbers of deaths and injuries.

“We are at 50 cases and 4 possible deaths at UMMC reported to VAERS alone in 4 weeks,” she wrote. “It is not our job to determine any possible cause/effect, that ultimately is the job of the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] and CDC. However, without data full transparency will never be truly known. I am still trying to bring awareness to the system as to mandatory reporting requirement by law.”

Conrad was still sounding the alarm about deaths and injuries in a May 25, 2021, email. “So far I have found 7 deaths. I have 4 others that were transferred to other hospitals so I need to look into their outcome and if they ultimately expired.”

In a May 27, 2021, email to Conrad, Dr. Tara L. Gellasch, chief medical officer at RRH, told Conrad, “you have our full support in reporting to VAERS as indicated,” but that “moving forward you will only report adverse events you encounter on your patients.”

Complaint alleges hospitals blocked 170 reports of serious adverse events

And in a June 21, 2021, email, Gellasch told Conrad, “While the provider has an obligation to report per the VAERS website this is still based on the provider’s clinical decision making.”

Gellasch accused Conrad of interpreting guidance to report adverse events to VAERS “broadly” and said “this is not a universal interpretation.”

“I know you have significant concerns about the vaccine and I appreciate this is frustrating for you. That said, we need you to follow the process in place. We cannot tell you how to interpret the VAERS guidance on reporting however, we do expect you to respect that your viewpoint on what is reportable is not shared by all,” Gellasch wrote.

According to the complaint, between May 27 and Oct. 6, 2021, RRH and UMMC blocked Conrad from submitting approximately 170 reports of serious adverse events to VAERS. Conrad has also alleged that the two institutions failed to report over 12,000 adverse events.

The complaint contains an excerpt of another communication from the hospital to Conrad, calling her concerns “quite almost anti-vaxxy.”

Conrad goes public with accusations

In the spring and summer of 2021, Conrad took her complaints public — first by contacting U.S. government public health agencies including the CDC and the FDA, and later by retaining legal counsel from the Siri & Glimstad law firm, sharing her experience on “The Highwire” and in The New York Times, and launching a crowdfunding campaign in anticipation of her firing.

In July 2021, Conrad contacted several key public health officials through her legal counsel, including then-U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, then-Interim FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, the FDA’s then-Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Peter Marks, and Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, a member of the CDC COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.

In a response later that month, according to the complaint, RRH claimed it “never discouraged one of its healthcare providers from reporting any adverse events experienced by one of their patients, whether related or unrelated to a COVID-19 vaccine.”

But in September 2021, Conrad was “interrogated” by hospital administrators regarding “complaints” about her VAERS reports and warned she would be reported to the New York State Society of Physician Assistants for spreading “misinformation.” Earlier that year, the same organization had nominated Conrad for a seat on the New York State Board for Professional Medical Conduct.

Also earlier that year, RRH had nominated Conrad for the 2021 Diane C. London Physician Excellence Award.

Finally, in what the complaint alleges was an act of “retaliation,” RRH’s human resources director asked Conrad “if she would leave quietly, or if she needed to be escorted out of the hospital.” Conrad was escorted out of the hospital the same day.

“I ultimately got audited and then was fired, not as a result of the audit, but as a result of just me continuing to try to educate my fellow colleagues and the hospital on what we were required to do,” Conrad said.

‘We shouldn’t be afraid to report potential side effects’

Conrad said last week’s ruling means the case will proceed to the discovery phase, where further evidence will be gathered.

According to attorney Ray Flores, senior outside counsel for Children’s Health Defense, who is not involved in Conrad’s lawsuit, when the government chooses not to intervene in a case like this, the chances of success are “greatly diminished, and costs skyrocket.” In theory, the government participates only in winning cases, Flores said.

“However, Conrad survived a motion to dismiss, and the all-star [legal] team she has assembled should provide enough intimidation motivation for respondents to settle,” Flores said.

Attorney Warner Mendenhall is representing Conrad. Mendenhall also represents Brook Jackson, a whistleblower in another False Claims Act case related to the COVID-19 vaccines, and the family of Grace Schara, a 19-year-old with Down syndrome who died in a Wisconsin hospital in 2021. Officially, Schara died of COVID-19 complications, but her family alleges she died due to medical battery.

Conrad said that the hospital’s behavior toward her for reporting adverse events to VAERS may help explain why less than 1% of vaccine injuries are reported to VAERS, according to a 2011 Harvard report.

“We have these laws and we have this system for a reason,” she said. “And if we’re not going to use it, then how can the public be confident that these things are safe?”

“I think people need to keep in mind that safety still should be of utmost importance and we shouldn’t be afraid to report potential side effects or talk about potential side effects related to vaccines, because they do occur.”

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• Watch: VAERS Purposely ‘Throttling’ and Undercounting Reports of Deaths After COVID Shots

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