FDA withdrew studies finding Covid, shingles vaccines were safe
The FDA has blocked the publication of several studies supporting the safety of vaccines against Covid and shingles in recent months, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed on Tuesday.
This is the latest effort by the Trump administration to challenge safe and effective vaccines in the United States and make it harder for some patients to access them. Federal health agencies under the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a leading vaccine skeptic, have softened Covid vaccine recommendations, scaled back vaccine development research and attempted to overhaul the childhood vaccination program, among other efforts.
FDA scientists worked with data firms to analyze millions of patient records for studies and found side effects from the vaccines were rare, the New York Times reported. first reported on Tuesday.
In October, scientists were instructed to withdraw two Covid vaccine studies that had been accepted for publication in medical journals, the Times reported. The newspaper added that in February, top FDA officials did not approve study summaries of Shingrix, a shingles vaccine, to be presented to a drug safety conference.
An HHS spokesperson told CNBC that the latest studies were “retracted because the authors drew broad conclusions that were not supported by the underlying data.”
“FDA acted to protect the integrity of its scientific process and to ensure that any studies associated with the agency met its high standards,” they added.
When asked about the shingles vaccine study, an HHS spokesperson said the design of that study “lies outside the scope of the agency.”
