According to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a recently released Grand Jury report claims that vaccine makers and federal agencies worked together to hide side effects, make huge profits, and avoid accountability while keeping important safety information from the public.

The grand jury dismissed a previous claim by DeSantis that Big Pharma was involved in “crimes and wrongdoing” when they found no evidence of criminal activity related to COVID vaccines. While the report suggests making clinical trials and their results more transparent, federal officials and public health experts remind us that vaccines underwent strict safety tests, are still being watched closely, and work very well to prevent serious illness, hospital stays, and deaths.

Governments, healthcare organizations, and drug companies worked together to create vaccines quickly during the pandemic. The U.S. government even helped pay for vaccine development to make them available to everyone. Vaccines didn’t just save lives—they also saved money. The U.S. campaign saved an estimated $1.15 trillion by preventing over 3.2 million deaths and millions of hospital stays. The CDC and FDA also closely monitor vaccine safety through the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and other systems. If side effects are found, they are fully investigated, and action is taken if needed.

Anti-vaxxers suggest that COVID vaccines significantly increase the risk of various health issues, including strokes, neurological conditions, mental health disorders, and cognitive impairments, allegedly due to toxic spike protein accumulation from mRNA technology.

These claims are based on three articles.

The articles by Mörz and Mikami et al. talk about elderly men, one with Parkison’s disease, who died 3 and 10 weeks after their respective COVID vaccines. In both cases, spike protein was found in their brains, with no accompanying nucleocapsid protein, indicating, to the researchers, that no COVID infection occurred. Importantly, case studies are among the weakest forms of evidence on the hierarchy of evidence. While these studies point out problems in these two cases, they don’t prove there are widespread risks or link the vaccine to the many health problems mentioned in the claims.

The article by Rong, et al, discusses how the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein can remain in the brain and nearby areas in mice, where it is linked to inflammation, brain damage, and behavior changes. However, the study shows that vaccination reduced the amount of spike protein compared to what happens with an infection, suggesting vaccines have a protective effect. The findings are more about understanding the long-term effects of COVID infection and do not prove that vaccines cause the specific health problems, like strokes or memory loss, mentioned in the claims.

Previous bioaccumulation studies have shown that although mRNA did enter various tissues, including the brain, it was at very low levels for a very limited amount of time. Likewise, other studies have also documented the long-term neurological impact of COVID infection.

None of these papers supports the broad claims of significantly increased risks of strokes, neurological disorders, or mental health conditions following COVID vaccination.

In an interview between Joe Rogan and Mark Zuckerberg, Rogan claimed that the government pushed to censor posts about vaccine side effects, ignored alternative ways to stay healthy, and overreacted to COVID since most people survived it.

This interview has many implications about vaccines and their safety, though regardless of how Zuckerberg feels about censorship or how agencies communicate with META, science on vaccines has been communicated through clinical trials and research.

Health experts have been clear about vaccine side effects, which are usually mild and temporary. For example, many people report experiencing soreness at the injection site, fatigue, or mild fever—similar to side effects from other vaccines like the flu shot. Real-world data from COVID vaccinations show that severe side effects are a rare outcome.

In the United States, where over 250 million people received at least one dose of the COVID vaccine, hospitalization rates dropped dramatically, especially for high-risk groups like the elderly, who saw a decline in COVID-related deaths by over 80% after vaccination campaigns.

COVID has caused over 7 million deaths globally, leaving many survivors with long COVID, which includes debilitating symptoms like fatigue and brain fog. In the U.S., data shows that unvaccinated people account for more in-hospital complications, more serious disease, and more death than their vaccinated peers.