The Food and Drug Administration has blocked the publication of government-funded studies that found both the covid and shingles vaccines to be safe, according to reporting by The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Reuters.
The suppressed research represented findings that the vaccines posed no significant safety concerns — conclusions that the agency prevented from reaching scientific journals or the public. The FDA's decision to withdraw the studies drew immediate attention given the current administration's stated skepticism toward vaccine policy.
The move comes as the agency operates under leadership aligned with broader efforts by the Trump administration to reassess vaccine guidance and the role of public health institutions. The CDC's director separately published an opinion piece in The Washington Post this week asserting that the agency would "follow the evidence" under his leadership.
The specific details of what the studies examined, how far along the publication process they were, and which officials made the decision to halt them were not fully disclosed in agency statements. Researchers involved in the work had not been given public explanations for why their findings were pulled, according to reports.
The covid and shingles vaccines have been in wide use in the United States for several years and have undergone multiple rounds of safety monitoring by federal health agencies. No major safety signals have emerged from that ongoing surveillance.
