A report on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines has been blocked from publication in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s flagship scientific journal, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday.
HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said scientific reports undergo multiple levels of review to ensure they meet the highest standards before publication.
He added that there were concerns about the "methodological approach estimating vaccine effectiveness" and so "the manuscript was not accepted for publication," in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
MMWR is one of the agency's main vehicles for publishing public-health findings and guidance, and its reports are closely watched by doctors, researchers and state health officials.
The Washington Post, which first reported the news on Wednesday, said earlier this month that the CDC had delayed publication of the report that showed the vaccines reduced emergency department visits and hospitalizations among healthy adults by about half this past winter.
