NIH Chief Bhattacharya Delays CDC Covid Hospitalization Benefit Study

Acting CDC director and NIH chief Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has delayed publication of a CDC study finding Covid vaccines highly effective at reducing hospitalizations, blocking its appearance in a March 2026 issue of the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, an HHS spokesperson confirmed. Emily G. Hilliard said Bhattacharya, an economist who opposed Covid vaccination during the pandemic and now wields broad authority over CDC, questioned the observational test‑negative methodology used to estimate vaccine effectiveness, even though a flu‑vaccine study using the same approach had just run in MMWR. The move follows a wider shake‑up under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an avowed vaccine skeptic who fired all 17 members of CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, installed skeptics, and oversaw reversals of recommendations that healthy children, pregnant women, and all newborns receive certain shots, including Covid and hepatitis B vaccines. The article also notes that FDA, another HHS agency, recently refused to review Moderna’s mRNA flu‑vaccine application before reversing course, adding to concern among medical experts and drug makers that political appointees are second‑guessing scientific processes in ways that slow or suppress pro‑vaccine evidence. Online, public‑health and infectious‑disease specialists are warning that political interference in routine CDC publication decisions further erodes trust in federal health data at a time when Covid vaccination rates are already sagging and new respiratory‑virus seasons loom.