Talawanda Board of Education/YouTube Dr. Sean Brooks speaking at a school board meeting in Ohio on August 16, 2021.
A man who described himself as “Dr. Sean Brooks, PhD, Oxford,” gave a series of incendiary and false statements about COVID-19 vaccines at an Ohio school board meeting. Video clips of Brooks talking at the meeting have been shared widely on social media and elsewhere on the internet by anti-vaccine advocates.
At one point in the video, which you can watch below, Brooks identified himself as “Dr. Sean Brooks, PhD, Oxford. I have 48 publications including 23 books. I’ve studied health medicine, anatomy and physiology for approximately 21 years.” He told parents and board members that people who take the vaccine will end up dead and sterile. However, those opinions are countered by scientific research and prominent experts, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who say the vaccines are safe and that taking them can help prevent the current COVID-19 spread that is filling up hospital beds throughout the country due to the delta variant.
The headline on the Bitchute video, which was posted on August 18, 2021, says, “Dr Sean Brooks at SW Ohio School Board Meeting: ‘Getting the Vaccine Will Cause your Death.'” It was posted on the page, TruthVideos1984.
Here’s what you need to know about the Dr. Sean Brooks video:
1. Sean Brooks Was Speaking at a Talawanda School District Board of Education Meeting in Southwest Ohio, Near the City of Oxford, Ohio
The man who identified himself as Dr. Sean Brooks spoke at the Talawanda School District Board of Education meeting on August 16, 2021, according to a YouTube video of the meeting. Several speakers spoke both for and against mask mandates and other COVID-19 protocols in the school district. The Talawanda School District is located in southwest Ohio and serves about 3,000 students in the rural area surrounding the city of Oxford, Ohio, according to its website. Brooks, who says in the video he is from Oxford, begins to speak at about the 29-minute mark of the video, which you can watch above.
Heavy has reached out Talawanda School District and Board of Education officials for comment about the viral video and Brooks’ statements. According to the school district’s website, the board put in place a mask mandate for all students, staff and visitors at the August 16 meeting where Brooks spoke.
The thread under the Talawanda School District’s video filled up with comments. “This is bonkers,” wrote one person.
2. There’s a Dr. Sean M. Brooks From Oxford Who Has a Ph.D in Education & Has Written Books About School Policy
Social media comment writers have noted there is little known about “Dr. Sean Brooks.” There is an author named Dr. Sean M. Brooks listed on Amazon.com with the same name, but it’s not clear whether he’s the same person. A “Dr. Sean Brooks Ph.D” who looks similar has made incendiary comments in videos before. Here’s one on Bitchute that says the guest, a Dr. Sean Brooks with a PhD, spent his career in the field of education, not medicine. That video says Brooks has a bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio and a master’s degree and PhD from Walden University. Miami University is located in Oxford, Ohio, which would explain the Oxford reference. A page on that university’s website about Dr. Sean Brooks publishing books no longer exists. We have reached out to that Dr. Brooks, who lives in Oxford, Ohio, per online records, to confirm whether he is the man in the school board video.
On the podcast “Quite Frankly,” the host said that Dr. Sean Brooks would speak about the “danger of the education delivery system.” He said that Brooks taught in middle and high school and was a former adjunct professor at Miami University in Ohio who wrote five books on violence, unprofessionalism and corruption in K-12 education. His latest was called, “Purposeful deception the inside plan to communize and destroy American k12 education.”
Here is the Dr. Sean M. Brooks affiliated with Miami University:
The author page for that book states, “Dr. Sean M. Brooks has spoken nationally and internationally on the topics of conflict and violence in school, teacher education, teacher leadership, curriculum and instruction, classroom management, and freedom and independence in education. He holds three degrees in Education, including a Ph.D. in Education with a specialization in learning, instruction and innovation. Dr. Brooks is the author of the books; Where the Finger Points, Violence Among Students and School Staff, The Mental and Emotional State of School-Aged Students, and The Origins of School Violence.”
There is a teacher discipline case in Florida against a Sean McCalla Brooks; that’s the full name of the man listed as living in Oxford, Ohio, in online records. It says that Sean McCalla Brooks case resulted in a letter of reprimand and probation in a settlement. “The Department and the educator enter into an agreement to settle the case. In the settlement, the educator neither admits, nor denies the allegations, but elects not to contest them. The EPC may accept or reject the settlement agreement. If accepted, the settlement agreement will be incorporated into the EPC’s Final Order,” the finding states. He was accused of posting videos of students discussing topics like engaging in sexual activity, conflict and violence to a website without some parents’ permission.
3. The Comments Made at the School Board Meeting Aren’t Backed Up by Experts or Science
The Dr. Sean Brooks’ scare comments in the Ohio school board video aren’t backed up by other experts or scientific research.
“COVID vaccines remain generally very safe overall. The move to pause vaccination is a transparent and conservative decision in the setting of rare events—in the middle of a pandemic—and demonstrates the dedication of the CDC and FDA to the safety of all vaccine recipients,” said Beth Kirkpatrick, MD, Professor, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine. Her quote was one of the expert opinions available through Sciline, which provides scientific expertise to journalists.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says, “Serious side effects that could cause a long-term health problem are extremely unlikely following any vaccination, including COVID-19 vaccination.”
CDC added: “COVID-19 vaccination will help protect you from getting COVID-19. You may have some side effects, which are normal signs that your body is building protection. These side effects may affect your ability to do daily activities, but they should go away in a few days. Some people have no side effects.” Side effects are reported through the VAERS network.
The CDC outlines steps that are taken to ensure vaccine safety, saying “The United States has the safest, most effective vaccine supply in its history. The nation’s longstanding vaccine safety system ensures that vaccines are as safe as possible.” You can read those steps here. They include clinical trials and post-licensure safety studies.
“COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective,” says the CDC. “Millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines under the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history. CDC recommends you get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as you can.”
Deaths are rare, as are other side effects. “Reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination are rare. More than 357 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States from December 14, 2020, through August 16, 2021,” the CDC reports. “During this time, VAERS received 6,789 reports of death (0.0019%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine. FDA requires healthcare providers to report any death after COVID-19 vaccination to VAERS, even if it’s unclear whether the vaccine was the cause. Reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused a health problem.”
4. Brooks Made a Series of Frightening Statements in the Video, but the CDC Says Otherwise
In the video, Brooks made a series of frightening statements. However, many of his claims are not supported by other experts or the CDC.
“Dr. Robert Malone who created the messenger RNA vaccine has said no one should ever take these jabs ever under any circumstances whatsoever,” he said. “He created it and he says don’t ever do it. Let me explain what’s going to happen to the people who have taken it. The people who have taken it are going to die in the next six months to 3 to 5 years for three reasons.” (Here’s an article in the Atlantic that explains more about Malone and vaccines. It says, in part, “Whether Malone really came up with mRNA vaccines is a question probably best left to Swedish prize committees, but you could make a case for his involvement. … Malone may keep company with vaccine skeptics, but he insists he is not one himself. His objections to the Pfizer and Moderna shots have to do mostly with their expedited approval process and with the government’s system for tracking adverse reactions. Speaking as a doctor, he would probably recommend their use only for those at highest risk from COVID-19.”)
He then claimed, “Number 1. You’ve dramatically decreased your own immune system by 35 percent. The first jab did it by at least 15. The second did it by 35. If you take any booster shot, you will die that’s it. If you take a flu shot in the future, you will die. The second reason antibody dependent enhancement is what’s happening with these jabs with everybody who has taken them, unless of course you’ve taken a placebo but there’s no way you’d know that.”
He continued, “So given that fact antibody dependent enhancement tricks the entire body into believing that the cell that’s eating the pathogen is eating it when it isn’t. It ends up leading to what is called a cytokine storm that is causing organ failure, that will cause your death and there’s no stopping that, no amount of drugs will stop that. The third thing, blood clotting. Everyone who is taking the jabs is blood clotting.”
He further alleged, “They’re cutting full blood clots out of people right now as I’m talking to you. Millions have died from the jabs. In your last meeting you advocated for people to take the jabs potentially in the future along with wearing masks. I heard parents say the same things. So to with the parents actually considering jabbing their own children, you’re going to sterilize them permanently. People who have taken the jabs are sterilized, 80 percent of women who have been jabbed have lost their children in the first trimester. You can’t have kids.”
Brooks further claimed, “Also injecting yourself with the equivalent of HIV you can now no longer breastfeed, donate blood, donate organs, donate blood plasma or bone marrow. If you don’t believe me try to donate blood and blood plasma and find out what happens; you will be denied, unless of course you live in California where they’re allowing people to donate toxic blood with spike proteins in it. Thejabs create spike proteins. They’re in the jabs themselves. They’re created by snapping your RNA in half. You’re no longer a human anymore, you’re something else. You’re susceptible to countless diseases.”
He further claimed: “Here’s what’s going to happen in the future very quickly. I don’t know what percentage of your staff has taken the jabs, but your schools is going to close. They will not open. They will fall ill and die. That will happen in all your buildings. It’s already happening, good luck because nothing can stop this.”
People applauded when he was done.
At the same meeting, a local Oxford pediatrician, Dr. Jim Davis, spoke immediately before Brooks in favor of a mask mandate. He told the school board he has worked in the community taking care of children for 39 years. Davis said because of students wearing masks during the previous school year, “In my office I saw less strep throat, less ear infections, less pneumonia, less upper respiratory tract infections, it’s the lowest number of respiratory infections that I’ve seen in my entire career. … And clearly what we didn’t know until last year was that masking in the way that we did clearly decreased the spread of all those respiratory infections, decreased the spread of COVID. …I don’t understand why people wouldn’t want to do the best possible way to protect our teachers and our children by providing them an environment that decreases the spread of this disease.”
As Davis went to sit down, someone in the crowd yelled out, “Our choice.” Before he began speaking, Brooks appeared to address Davis, who was sitting in front of him, saying, “Disappointed brother. Disappointed.” After Brooks was finished talking, Davis appeared to try to stand up to respond to his comments, but the board told him others had to be allowed to speak first.
5. What’s the Actual Rate of Side Effects? They Are Rare & the Vaccine Doesn’t Impact Fertility, the CDC Says & Experts Say the Vaccines Are Safe, With Side Effects Rare
Getty A healthcare worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19.
The CDC provides this data on side effects and how often they occur.
Allergic reactions: “Anaphylaxis after COVID-19 vaccination is rare and has occurred in approximately 2 to 5 people per million vaccinated in the United States. Severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, can occur after any vaccination. If this occurs, vaccination providers can effectively and immediately treat the reaction. Learn more about COVID-19 vaccines and allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis.”
Blood clots: “Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) after Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen (J&J/Janssen) COVID-19 vaccination is rare. As of August 11, 2021, more than 13 million doses of the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine have been given in the United States. CDC and FDA identified 42 confirmed reports of people who got the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine and later developed TTS. Women younger than 50 years old especially should be aware of the rare but increased risk of this adverse event. There are other COVID-19 vaccine options available for which this risk has not been seen.”
“CDC and FDA are monitoring reports of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) in people who have received the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine. GBS is a rare disorder where the body’s immune system damages nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis. Most people fully recover from GBS, but some have permanent nerve damage. After more than 13 million J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine doses administered, there have been around 161 preliminary reports of GBS identified in VAERS as of August 11, 2021. These cases have largely been reported about 2 weeks after vaccination and mostly in men, many 50 years and older. CDC will continue to monitor for and evaluate reports of GBS occurring after COVID-19 vaccination and will share more information as it becomes available.”
Heart inflammation: “Myocarditis and pericarditis after COVID-19 vaccination are rare. As of August 11, 2021, VAERS has received 1,306 reports of myocarditis or pericarditis among people ages 30 and younger who received COVID-19 vaccine. Most cases have been reported after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna), particularly in male adolescents and young adults. Through follow-up, including medical record reviews, CDC and FDA have confirmed 762 reports of myocarditis or pericarditis. CDC and its partners are investigating these reports to assess whether there is a relationship to COVID-19 vaccination.”
The CDC also says it’s safe to have a baby if you got the COVID-19 vaccine: “Yes. If you are trying to become pregnant now or want to get pregnant in the future, you may get a COVID-19 vaccine when one is available to you. There is currently no evidence that COVID-19 vaccination causes any problems with pregnancy, including the development of the placenta. In addition, there is no evidence that female or male fertility problems are a side effect of any vaccine, including COVID-19 vaccines.”
The CDC says the vaccines won’t alter your DNA: “COVID-19 vaccines do not change or interact with your DNA in any way. Both mRNA and viral vector COVID-19 vaccines deliver instructions (genetic material) to our cells to start building protection against the virus that causes COVID-19. However, the material never enters the nucleus of the cell, which is where our DNA is kept.”
GettyA COVID-19 vaccine is prepared.
The Sciline service has rounded up quotes from experts around the country on COVID-19 vaccines. They spoke about the protections provided by the vaccines and say they are generally safe, with side effects rare. Here are some of them:
“Everyone wants safe vaccines and the pause to further investigate is evidence that the reporting system for adverse outcomes is working. Rare events will only be noted once millions of people are vaccinated and so the investigation that is currently ongoing is timely, prudent, and appropriate. There is always a risk/reward balance that has to be considered and we are seeing really quick and adaptive decisions being made as data is available,” said Darryl Falzarano, PhD, Research Scientist, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), University of Saskatchewan.
“The data from both clinical trials and large ‘real world’ studies have shown that the coronavirus vaccines in use in the United States are very protective against COVID-19. Someone who has been fully vaccinated—meaning two weeks following their last shot—is unlikely to become infected if exposed to the virus and, even if they do get infected, is much less likely to experience severe symptoms, and extremely unlikely to be hospitalized. We don’t know exactly how long vaccine immunity lasts, but we do know it lasts at least six months to a year, and it could last several years. The vaccines are also effective against the viral variants currently prevalent in the United States. It is possible that the virus will mutate in such a way that the vaccines are less effective, in which case Americans may need to get booster shots to ensure adequate protection,” said Ashish K. Jha, PhD, Dean, Brown University School of Public Health.
“No vaccine is 100% effective and vaccine breakthrough cases are expected. Recent data published from the CDC has shown 7,157 cases of breakthrough infections out of more than 87 million people fully vaccinated. Of these, very few were hospitalized and even a smaller portion died (<1%). Recent evidence has shown that out of nearly 4,000 healthcare personnel and first responders, those who were fully vaccinated were 90% less likely to get infected. These data and others coming out show how important the vaccine is in preventing severe illness from COVID-19,” said Rachael Lee, MD, MSPH Assistant Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Alabama at Birmingham.
On the question of blood clots? “These events have only been seen in the U.S. following the Johnson & Johnson vaccines, not following either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. This appears to be associated with antibodies in the blood that are directed against platelets and cause both low platelets, which is associated with bleeding, and blood clotting,” said Kirkpatrick.
She also said: “Given how rare the blood clotting event is, right now thought to be less than one in a million, individuals who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine should be aware but recognize it is extremely unlikely they will be affected. In the first one to four days after vaccination, vaccinated persons should anticipate the known side effects from this vaccine—including the low-grade fever, chills, aches, mild headache, injection site soreness. These are expected and not the symptoms associated with these rare clotting events. Symptoms of concern occur anywhere from five days to three weeks after vaccination, and include severe headache with or without vomiting, any new neurologic or stroke-like symptoms, or other new symptoms including easy bruising, red dot-like rash, severe abdominal pain, and trouble breathing.”
“There is an observation of rare coagulopathy (abnormal clotting) events that include low platelet levels following vaccination with the Johnson & Johnson AD26 vaccine. This situation appears to be similar to that observed with the AstraZeneca ChAdOx vaccine. The incidence rate, which appears to be between 1/250,000 to 1/1,000,000 seems to be comparable between both vaccines. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the low rate of occurrence, this has not been noted until millions of people have received these vaccines,” said Darryl Falzarano, PhD, Research Scientist, Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO), University of Saskatchewan.