The FDA has blocked the release of several studies supporting the safety of Covid and shingles vaccines in recent months, a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
It’s the latest effort by the Trump administration to challenge safe and effective shots in the United States and make them harder for some patients to access. Under the leadership of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, federal health agencies have relaxed COVID vaccine recommendations, reduced research on vaccine development and attempted to revise the childhood immunization schedule, among other efforts.
FDA scientists worked with data companies to analyze millions of patient records in the studies, which found that side effects from the shots were rare, The New York Times first reported Tuesday.
In October, scientists were ordered to withdraw two studies on Covid shots that had been accepted for publication in medical journals, the Times reported. In February, senior FDA officials did not approve the submission of study summaries of Shingrix, a shingles vaccine, to a drug safety conference, the newspaper added.
The HHS spokesperson told CNBC that the recent studies were “retracted because the authors drew broad conclusions that were not supported by the underlying data.”
“The FDA has acted to protect the integrity of its scientific process and ensure that any work associated with the agency meets its high standards,” they added.
Asked about shingles vaccine research, the HHS spokesperson said the design of that study “was not within the agency’s purview.”