US FDA blocked publication of safety studies for COVID, shingles vaccine
Officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration blocked publication of several vaccine safety studies involving COVID-19 and shingles vaccines, a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) spokesperson has said.
Andrew Nixon told Reuters the studies were pulled because the authors “drew broad conclusions” that officials said were not supported by the data.
He said the FDA acted to protect the integrity of its scientific process and ensure that agency-associated work met its standards.
The withdrawals come amid broader changes to U.S. vaccine policy under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime critic of vaccines.
The Trump administration has reduced vaccine-research funding and questioned vaccine safety and effectiveness during Kennedy’s tenure.
In August 2025, the HHS said it would scale down around $500 million in mRNA vaccine-development funding, cancelling 22 federal projects overseen by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
While media coverage broadly agrees that FDA-linked vaccine safety studies were stopped from publication or submission, outlets differ in what they highlight.
Left-leaning coverage tends to emphasise that the studies reportedly found COVID-19 and shingles vaccines to be safe; right-leaning coverage has emphasised institutional disruption or obstruction while giving less prominence to the stated rationale that the conclusions exceeded the data. More centre-leaning or wire-style reporting usually keeps the focus on the action and competing explanations, noting both the blocked safety studies and HHS’s argument that the withdrawals reflected scientific-review concerns rather than opposition to safety research itself.
US FDA blocked publication of COVID, shingles vaccine safety studies
FDA halts publication of studies on covid, shingles vaccines
