Defender Staff
September 2, 2025
The Defender

"A New York physician assistant is suing her former employer in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, claiming Rochester Regional Health defrauded the government by not allowing her to report adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines...

Deborah Conrad, who filed the lawsuit, worked at United Memorial Medical Center, part of Rochester Regional Health, during the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in December 2020. She immediately began seeing injuries in patients, she told the 'Back to the People' podcast.

Conrad told podcast host Nicole Shanahan:

'Some of the worst side effects that we saw related to things like falls after they had a vaccine. They would pass out and fall, hit their head, develop brain bleeds, strokes, acute mental status changes, heart attacks, sudden heart failure. I mean, the list just goes on and on'...

‘Who’s in charge of this ridiculous monster?’

Conrad began filing reports for injured patients, but the reports were so time-consuming and cumbersome that it became an 'overwhelming' task.

VAERS is 'designed to be impossible to use … to deter you' from filing reports, she said...

Conrad started asking for help within the hospital. But as word spread that she had filed dozens of reports, the hospital accused her of 'being an anti-vaxxer' and 'spreading vaccine misinformation.'

She was fired in October 2021. By then, she had filed 'about 180 or so' VAERS reports...

On June 11, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York denied the hospital’s motion to dismiss the case. The court found that the hospital was obligated to report serious adverse events to VAERS, and failure to report while continuing to seek federal reimbursement was potential fraud against the government."

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adverse events,adverse-event reporting systems,COVID-19,healthcare,hospitalizations,lockdowns,US law,vaccines