FDA Pulled Two of Its Own Studies Showing COVID and Shingles Vaccines Are Safe — Right Before Publication

The FDA Killed Two Studies Showing Vaccines Were Safe — After Journals Had Already Accepted Them

On May 5, 2026, the New York Times reported — with confirmation from ABC News and Reuters — that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration directed the withdrawal of two government-funded studies on the safety of the COVID-19 and shingles vaccines. The studies had already cleared peer review and were accepted for publication. This was not a journal rejecting weak science; it was a federal agency intervening to stop the release of its own safety research.

What the Studies Found

Both studies analyzed large medical-records databases to track adverse events following vaccination. Their conclusion: serious side effects were extremely rare. In the COVID analysis, a small myocarditis signal in adolescents reportedly lost statistical significance once researchers accounted for the normal seasonal background rate of myocarditis in the general population.

The Official Justification

HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the studies 'were withdrawn because their authors reached general conclusions that are not supported by the underlying data,' and that the FDA 'acted to protect the integrity of the scientific process.' Critics noted that pulling studies whose findings affirm vaccine safety — under an HHS led by a secretary who has long questioned vaccines — looked less like quality control than like suppressing inconvenient results.

Why It Matters

When a regulator funds research, sees it pass independent peer review, and then orders it withdrawn, the public loses the ability to see what its own scientists found. The episode triggered congressional scrutiny over publication interference at federal health agencies — a pattern, not an isolated event, given a parallel CDC report on vaccine benefits was delayed weeks earlier.