The findings revealed that the COVID vaccine reduced emergency department visits and halved hospitalizations among healthy adults last winter.
The study, previously delayed by the head of the federal agency Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, was ultimately rejected for publication in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, The Washington Post reported, citing officials familiar with the decision.

The CDC initially delayed the publication based on concerns about "the observational method used in the study to calculate vaccine effectiveness".
Now, Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, was quoted as saying that "the MMWR's editorial assessment identified concerns regarding the methodological approach to estimating vaccine effectiveness and the manuscript was not accepted for publication".

What Is This Concerning?

According to current and former officials that The Post spoke to, the information about the vaccine's benefits is being downplayed because it conflicts with the views of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.. Kennedy has been an outspoken critic of the vaccine. He once referred to COVID-19 shots as the "deadliest vaccine ever made."

Notably, the CDC study had cleared the agency's scientific-review process, which includes dozens of scientists, The Post reported. Stopping an MMWR report at that stage is highly unusual, former CDC officials were quoted as saying.

"I cannot recall CDC stopping an MMWR report in the publication phase after scientific clearance and editorial review. On rare occasions, we shifted the timing slightly to better align communications plans with competing or reinforcing pieces," said Michael Iademarco, who was the director of the CDC center with oversight of the MMWR from 2014 to 2022.

The agency has to apply the "highest standards of scientific rigor" to the information it publishes, a CDC official said in response to a query from CIDRAP News.

"Responsible science requires careful review. Taking time to ensure analyses are methodologically sound and clearly communicated is always preferable to risking error," the official added.

The rejected study used a methodology that has long been used by the CDC to evaluate vaccine effectiveness for respiratory viruses, including influenza.
Importantly, a study about flu vaccine effectiveness conducted using the same methodology was published in the MMWR a week earlier. Similarly, another study using the same methodology was conducted to gauge COVID vaccine effectiveness in children. It was published in MMWR in December.

Also read:A Year After RFK JR Promised To Make America Healthy Again, What Actually Happened?

The Post quoted an HHS official as saying that Bhattacharya met with scientific staff and that the study's authors did not want to adjust their methodology.

The cancellation of the report appears to be "cherry picking based on the bias of the director and others at HHS who don't fully understand the importance of the methods used to assess the added benefit of vaccines in preventing poor outcomes," Demetre Daskalakis, the former director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in an email to CIDRAP News.

HHS under Robert F Kennedy Jr

Robert F Kennedy Jr took charge of America's health as the Secretary of Health and Human Services in 2025.

Read:Who is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Controversial Nominee for U.S. Health Secretary?

No area defined Kennedy's first year more than vaccines. He clearly did state during election debates that he is not against vaccine but planned to reshape a system he said had failed many families for decades.

However, in the first year, he fired members of a CDC advisory panel, replaced them, sometimes with skeptics, and cut the list of routinely recommended childhood vaccines from 17 to 11.

Several vaccines, including flu and hepatitis A, were removed from routine recommendations. He also directed the CDC to stop recommending the vaccine for healthy pregnant women and children.

Within days of Kennedy's swearing-in, thousands of employees across CDC (including the Director), FDA and NIH were fired in a sweeping reorganization aimed at shrinking the department by about 20,000 workers.

Meanwhile, measles deaths returned after a decade. It puts the country at risk of losing its measles elimination status this year.

Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana said the gap in trust over vaccines has worsened during the past year "due to false statements about safety and efficacy of vaccines for preventable diseases like measles", US News reported.

But as per Kennedy, the US has done better at controlling the measles outbreak "than any country in the world."

He also deflected responsibility for the situation, noting that "it started before I came to office" and saying most children infected with measles are over 5 years old, "meaning their decision not to vaccinate predated my appointment."

"We have a global pandemic," Kennedy said. "It has nothing to do with me."

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