The publication of a report showing the Covid vaccine is highly effective at reducing hospitalizations has been delayed by the acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Washington Post first reported the delay, citing two scientists familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the delay to MS NOW.
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya — an economist who advocated against vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic and who now helms the National Institutes of Health — took issue with the report’s methodology and held back on publication, the spokesperson said. Bhattacharya was acting director of the CDC at the time and has since been granted broad authority over the agency as the Trump administration searches for a permanent director.
“Dr. Bhattacharya expressed concerns about the observational method used in this study to calculate vaccine effectiveness, and the scientific team is working to address these concerns,” Emily G. Hilliard, the HHS spokesperson, told MS NOW.
The report was slated to publish in a March issue of the CDC’s flagship journal, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the scientists told the Post. But Bhattacharya delayed its release despite a study that relied on the same methodology — examining the vaccination status of sick people who sought care at hospitals and emergency rooms — having been published in the CDC journal a week earlier, according to the Post. That study focused on the efficacy of fly vaccines.
Hilliard did not respond to a question about whether it is common practice for political appointees to review independent research studies that fall outside of their expertise, but said that “it’s routine for CDC leadership to review and flag concerns about MMWR journal papers, especially relating to their methodology, leading up to planned publication.”
Department of Human and Health Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a prominent vaccine skeptic who founded the anti-vaccine nonprofit Children’s Health Defense before President Donald Trump appointed him to lead the country’s health and research agencies. Last year, Kennedy overhauled the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which makes recommendations about vaccine policy. He fired all 17 members of the committee and included vaccine skeptics among the replacements.
The panel has since scrapped recommendations that healthy children and pregnant women get vaccinated against Covid. The CDC previously recommended Covid vaccines for everyone age 6 months and older.
The revised panel has also rolled back the decades-old guidance that all newborns get vaccinated against hepatitis B — an incurable disease with deadly consequences when contracted in the first few months of life.
The Food and Drug Administration, another agency under the purview of HHS, generated concern among medical experts and pharmaceutical companies when it refused to review Moderna’s application for approval of a new flu vaccine that used the same mRNA technology that made the Covid vaccine possible. The agency reversed course after Moderna amended its application and met with regulators in February.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.