FDA withdraws publication of COVID, shingles vaccine research findings
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) withdrew the publication of studies that tracked the safety of the COVID-19 and shingles vaccines.
"The studies were withdrawn because the authors drew broad conclusions that were not supported by the underlying data,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told ABC News. "The FDA acted to protect the integrity of its scientific process and ensure that any work associated with the agency meets its high standards."
Both before and since taking office, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has widely sown doubt in the safety and efficacy of several vaccines.
During a December 2021 Louisiana House of Representatives meeting discussing a proposal to require schoolchildren to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Kennedy falsely called the vaccine the "deadliest vaccine ever made."
During his confirmation hearings last year, Kennedy claimed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approved COVID-19 vaccines "without any scientific basis."
However, COVID vaccines are among the most studied vaccines in history, with large clinical studies showing the health benefits far exceed any potential risks.
Additionally, health officials say COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective following clinical trials that involved tens of thousands of people, and have since helped save millions of lives.
The CDC has also stated that the shingles vaccine is safe and "not associated with serious adverse events."
Dr. Fiona Havers, a former CDC official who worked on vaccine policy and led the CDC's tracking of hospitalizations from COVID-19 and RSV, said in a statement to ABC News, “HHS leaders now have a clear pattern of blocking high-quality studies that include results that don’t support their overall anti-vaccine narrative.
"This censorship of taxpayer-funded science is extremely concerning,” Havers added.
The withdrawal of the studies is the latest move under Kennedy's tenure, as the secretary has attempted to reshape vaccine policy in the U.S.
In August, Kennedy announced that the government was canceling at least $500 million of federally funded mRNA vaccine development, which experts said at the time could affect U.S. preparedness for future pandemics and squashed enthusiasm for technology that has been hailed as a potential promise for cancer and HIV vaccines.
Perhaps most notably, Kennedy removed all 17 members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee and replaced them with new members, many of whom have expressed vaccine-skeptic views. Earlier this year, a federal judge stayed all votes taken by the Kennedy-nominated members, which included the removal of the universal recommendation for the hepatitis B shot at birth and to narrow existing recommendations for the combined MMRV shot that protects against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox.
The judge also temporarily blocked changes to the childhood vaccine schedule that were made at the beginning of this year, in which Kennedy reduced the number of recommended shots from 17 to 11.
