Remember when we were told the COVID vaccine would stop transmission and keep people from getting the virus altogether?? Yeah, that was a lie.

But that’s not all…because now, years later, there’s more…

David Morens, a former top adviser to Anthony Fauci, has been indicted for allegedly hiding emails tied to COVID research during the pandemic. Federal prosecutors say that Morens wasn’t just emailing about COVID research – he was allegedly doing it on private accounts to dodge public records laws, all while concealing or even destroying communications tied to controversial research and grant efforts. That wasn’t exactly the kind of “trust the experts” work product that we were expecting. Turns out “trust the science” came with a few asterisks.

But that’s not all…A new report dropped Tuesday from the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, led by Chairman Ron Johnson, suggests federal health officials saw early red flags tied to COVID-19 vaccines – and instead of sounding the alarm, hit the mute button. According to the findings, internal analysis was limited and communication about potential adverse events was kept on a tight leash.

Put simply, the report says that when looking at the data, two doctors who adjusted for “data masking” – a statistical issue where strong or frequently reported side effects can overshadow and hide less obvious ones – uncovered about 25 statistically significant safety signals linked to COVID-19 vaccines that the FDA’s standard methods didn’t flag. Those signals included serious conditions such as sudden cardiac death, Bell’s palsy, and pulmonary infarction.

At the time, the work by Dr. Ana Szarfman, then a senior medical officer at the FDA, and Dr. William DuMouchel, wasn’t exactly front and center. According to the Senate investigation, their alternative analysis didn’t gain traction with the FDA. Instead of triggering a broader review or public discussion, their findings were reportedly treated more like background noise: not fully incorporated into official analyses, not widely shared, and not used to guide public messaging.

In the end, the COVID-19 story isn’t just about what was said – it’s about what wasn’t. From shifting goalposts on lockdowns to overlooked safety signals buried in the data, the so-called “settled science” looks a lot more like a work in progress that the public wasn’t fully let in on. And now, with investigations, indictments, and long-delayed disclosures surfacing, the real takeaway is hard to ignore: when transparency takes a back seat, trust doesn’t just erode – it collapses. It also shows us that we can’t trust the government. But then again, that’s not news.