A report showing the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines that was previously delayed by the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now been blocked from being published in the agency’s flagship scientific journal, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.
The vaccines reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half this past winter, the report said, citing three people familiar with the decision.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has long faced criticism from public-health experts over his repeated questioning of vaccine safety and efficacy, a record that has made his oversight of federal vaccine policy especially contentious.
Under Kennedy’s leadership, a panel of vaccine advisers in September scrapped a broad recommendation for COVID shots and said the shots should be administered only through shared decision-making with a healthcare provider.
