Quashed studies, halted publications and canceled research threaten damage to public health, critics say

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A series of high-profile and under-the-radar decisions by US health agencies have scientists and doctors questioning the extent of the agencies’ control over public communications – and they say the debate is obscuring the most important part, which is informing the public about key updates in science and medicine.

Studies on the safety of vaccines against shingles and Covid were reportedly quashed before publication by officials at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The news follows the hasty halt on publication of a study on the effectiveness of Covid boosters by the top acting official at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and research terminated or never approved in the first place because of keywords such as “hesitancy” and “misinformation” at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).