Thatcher and Linthicum submitted the petition in a letter (pdf) on Aug. 16 after gathering signatures from 1,718 Oregonians and 53,032 Americans.

In the petition, the senators expressed concerns over the measurement and reporting of COVID-19 vaccine adverse reactions including fatalities and injuries.

The lawmakers stated that a whistleblower, under sworn testimony, said the data reported under the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System may have been underreported by a factor of five.

Regarding the diagnosis of COVID-19 through widely-used PCR tests, the senators said that the CDC and the FDA's setting of one particular test parameter—the cycle threshold—generated "false positives resulting in inflated numbers of COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths."

Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Michael Mina told The New York Times in August 2020 that tests with too high of a threshold may detect not just live viruses but also genetic fragments. Mina suggested setting the cut-off at 30 cycles or less.