Witnesses
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Allison Inquiry | Julie Woods | Day 3 September 10th, 2026
A 29-year-old former college volleyball player and co-founder of CanRise 19 describes burning, crawling nerve pain that spread from her feet to her whole body after her second and third Pfizer doses. After 23 Canadian doctors, a US clinic diagnosed her with small fiber neuropathy and POTS, and she says she has only now started a delayed treatment.
Julie Woods, 29, is a co-founder of the support organization CanRise 19 and a master's student in counselling psychology who played college volleyball and worked two jobs before her injury. She says lab testing in a University Health Network study confirmed she never had COVID. Woods received Pfizer on May 16 and June 26, 2021, and within a month of the second dose developed numbness, tingling and pain below her knees that lasted four months. After a third dose on December 21, 2021, she says the symptoms returned within five days, spread from her feet to her waist and later her whole body, and became constant, burning pain at seven to nine out of ten with a sensation of bugs crawling inside. She describes travelling with her father to see 23 Canadian doctors, being told vaccines don't do that, being called incompetent and a psychiatric case, and finally paying to go to Utah in October 2024, where she was diagnosed with small fiber neuropathy and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, plus mitochondrial dysfunction, insulin resistance and microclotting. A Utah doctor recommended immune globulin therapy two years earlier, and she says she started it only seven weeks ago, after her condition progressed. She describes finding React19, co-founding CanRise 19, and what it offers, and says doctors privately tell patients they cannot document vaccine injury for fear of losing their licence. She testifies while starting a new treatment with heavy side effects, and MPs thank her.
Julie Woods, 29, is a co-founder of the support organization CanRise 19 and a master's student in counselling psychology who played college volleyball and worked two jobs before her injury. She says lab testing in a University Health Network study confirmed she never had COVID. Woods received Pfizer on May 16 and June 26, 2021, and within a month of the second dose developed numbness, tingling and pain below her knees that lasted four months. After a third dose on December 21, 2021, she says the symptoms returned within five days, spread from her feet to her waist and later her whole body, and became constant, burning pain at seven to nine out of ten with a sensation of bugs crawling inside. She describes travelling with her father to see 23 Canadian doctors, being told vaccines don't do that, being called incompetent and a psychiatric case, and finally paying to go to Utah in October 2024, where she was diagnosed with small fiber neuropathy and postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, plus mitochondrial dysfunction, insulin resistance and microclotting. A Utah doctor recommended immune globulin therapy two years earlier, and she says she started it only seven weeks ago, after her condition progressed. She describes finding React19, co-founding CanRise 19, and what it offers, and says doctors privately tell patients they cannot document vaccine injury for fear of losing their licence. She testifies while starting a new treatment with heavy side effects, and MPs thank her.
