Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, blocked publication of a study showing COVID-19 vaccines reduced severe illness by about half during winter. The study was scheduled for the March 19, 2026 issue of the agency’s flagship Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and had cleared scientific review.
Study Findings and Methodology Dispute
The study found that healthy adults who received the 2025-2026 COVID vaccine reduced emergency department visits by 50% and hospitalizations by 55% compared to unvaccinated individuals. Bhattacharya halted the report over objections to its use of test-negative design, a method employed for decades to evaluate flu and COVID vaccine effectiveness. The test-negative design compares vaccination rates among people who test positive for a disease versus those who test negative after seeking medical care. Bhattacharya argued the method “throws away all data about people, vaccinated or not, who are never hospitalized” and relies on “unverifiable assumptions” about behavioral differences between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups.
Political Response and Broader Context
Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to Health Secretary Kennedy suggesting the administration had taken actions that “deliberately misrepresent the risk of vaccinations.” Dr. Fiona Havers, a former CDC medical epidemiologist who resigned in June 2025 in protest of Kennedy’s appointees, called the decision “a new level of political interference into CDC’s scientific process.” The CDC’s vaccine safety office saw significant turnover, with three senior leaders resigning in summer 2025 after clashes with Kennedy over policy direction. Kennedy, who founded a prominent anti-vaccine group before becoming health secretary, previously called COVID shots the “deadliest vaccine ever made.” The study’s authors may submit their findings to independent medical journals for publication.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.naturalnews.com/2026-05-12-cdc-blocks-covid-vaccine-study-publication-amid-methodology-dispute.html