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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) postponed releasing a report on the advantages of the COVID-19 vaccine, following a directive from its interim director.
According to The Washington Post, Acting CDC Director Jay Bhattacharya held back the report due to concerns regarding the methodology employed. The report, which highlighted the vaccine’s role in reducing hospitalizations and emergency room visits among healthy adults during the previous winter, was scrutinized by two scientists knowledgeable about the situation.
The CDC’s methodology, which has been a standard for evaluating vaccine efficacy against respiratory viruses, typically appears in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), as noted by the Post.
This same approach was utilized by the New England Journal of Medicine in a 2021 study assessing the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.
The Hill has reached out to the CDC for further remarks on the matter.
The methodology used is a test-negative design, which examines individuals who are sick enough to seek care, be tested and then allow for their vaccination rates to be compared with others who test positive and those who do not, the Post wrote.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson Andrew Nixon told the Post that the delay was part of a “routine for CDC leadership to review and flag concerns about MMWR papers, especially relating to their methodology, leading up to planned publication.”
Nixon noted that Bhattacharya was concerned about “the observational method used in the study to calculate vaccine effectiveness and the scientific team is working to address these concerns.”
“Dr. Bhattacharya wants to make sure that the paper uses the most appropriate methodology for such a study,” the spokesperson added.
The delay follows HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s amended charter for the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices published Monday. This previous committee voted in favor of recommendations to no longer recommend the COVID-19 vaccine for everyone 6 months and older but to leave it to “individual-based decision making.” A federal judge effectively nullified committee members handpicked by the secretary.
Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulator Vinay Prasad put new restrictions on the approval of COVID-19 vaccines by Novavax and Moderna. This caused controversy, which grew with the announcement that guidelines on vaccine approval would be more strict given the deaths of 10 children who died “after and because of a” COVID-19 vaccine, Prasad told FDA officials in a memo obtained by the Post.