CDC Head Rejects Study Reporting COVID-19 Vaccines Prevent Hospitalizations

COVID-19 vaccines roughly halved the chance that U.S. adults would need emergency room care or hospitalization for COVID-19 last fall and winter. Two sources familiar with a new study’s findings reported these results to CNN.

According to CNN, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, objected to publishing these findings in the CDC’s main journal, despite their expected release. The authors received a rejection letter from the journal last week, a source confirmed. The study had passed internal reviews and was already scheduled for publication.

The rejection is unusual because the study followed the agency’s standard methods for estimating vaccine effectiveness against seasonal respiratory viruses and used the CDC-led VISION collaboration, which stands for the Virtual SARS-CoV-2, Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses Network. The network uses electronic health records from nine U.S. health systems to monitor vaccine effectiveness from season to season in various age groups.

According to sources familiar with the episode, Bhattacharya took issue with the study’s so-called test-negative design. It’s become the standard for measuring vaccine effectiveness, not only for COVID-19 but also for other seasonal respiratory viruses like influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

COVID-19 vaccines have been a particular target of the HHS under Kennedy. In June, he announced that COVID-19 vaccines would no longer be recommended for pregnant women and children. In September, the agency’s new vaccine advisers removed the CDC’s blanket recommendation for COVID-19 vaccines for everyone 6 months and older and instead recommended that the vaccines be given after shared clinical decision-making, meaning with a recommendation or prescription from a doctor or pharmacist. As CMM previously reported, doctors instead recommended a childhood and adolescent immunization schedule that deviated from the CDC’s recommendations.

A March meeting of the vaccine advisers was scheduled to report on injuries related to COVID-19 vaccines, but it was postponed after a legal ruling temporarily halted some of the administration’s vaccine-related policy changes and activities.

Earlier this month, President Trump chose Dr. Erica Schwartz, a seasoned public health leader with a strong background in vaccination programs, to head the CDC. This move highlights the administration’s evolving perspective on vaccines.