A controversial decision by the Trump administration to pull a vaccine study from a weekly report put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could portend an overhaul of the venerable publication. Jayanta “Jay” Bhattacharya, temporary head of CDC at the time, has questioned whether the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) – for 65 years a mainstay for conveying urgent public health data – is properly peer reviewed.

The skirmish goes back to a 9 April, 2026 story in The Washington Post revealing that Bhattacharya had delayed publication in MMWR of a study of the COVID-19 vaccine’s effectiveness. Bhattacharya, who also is director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), had concerns about the study’s design for assessing how well the vaccine works at preventing hospitalization and death. On 22 April, 2026, the Post reported that MMWR had outright rejected the paper. The move drew an outcry on X – and a quick defense from Bhattacharya.

Source https://www.science.org/content/article/after-pulling-vaccine-study-bhattacharya-criticizes-long-running-cdc-publication

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