The Trump administration’s impact on vaccine science appears to have taken another controversial turn. Recent reporting has disclosed that Jay Bhattacharya, the acting director of the CDC, has secretly halted a report indicating that COVID-19 vaccines significantly enhance public health.
According to two scientists from the CDC, who spoke anonymously for fear of backlash, the report concluded that COVID vaccines greatly reduce the likelihood of hospitalization after infection. Specifically, the findings suggested that healthy individuals who were vaccinated faced a 50 percent lower risk of needing urgent care and a 55 percent reduction in hospital stays compared to their unvaccinated counterparts.
This report was originally set to be published on March 19 in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. However, Bhattacharya postponed it, citing concerns over the study’s methodology.
Andrew Nixon, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, mentioned that Dr. Bhattacharya wants to ensure the paper adheres to the most suitable methodology for such research.
Interestingly, a similar report using the same methodology to analyze the flu vaccine was published in the MMWR just a week prior.
This situation raises eyebrows, reflecting a pattern seen in the actions of HHS Secretary and noted vaccine skeptic RFK Jr., who had previously called the COVID vaccine “the deadliest vaccine ever made.” In 2025, the FDA, part of HHS, took steps to restrict access to the vaccine significantly.
Former CDC safety director Daniel Jernigan remarked to the newspaper that the secretary has already initiated moves to limit the vaccine’s availability for children and others. He noted that if a report asserting the vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing hospitalizations were to be published, it would contradict the ongoing efforts to curtail vaccine access.
This controversy is just one piece of a broader pattern of anti-vaccine actions taken by HHS since Donald Trump appointed RFK Jr. to his role.
Toward the end of 2025, it came to light that RFK’s HHS was planning a considerable vaccine trial that would intentionally withhold hepatitis B vaccines from 7,000 newborns in Guinea-Bissau. Medical experts argued that the goal was to create a misleading correlation between a well-known vaccine and vaguely defined neurological issues.
Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, stated that RFK Jr. holds an unwavering belief that vaccines can be harmful and will do everything in his power to validate that view.
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