CDC delays report on benefits of Covid vaccine

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

Jay Bhattacharya — an economist who advocated against vaccines during the Covid 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

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

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 FDA, 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