The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that certain coronavirus vaccine data has not been published yet because it could potentially lead to misinformation.
The CDC published new data on the effectiveness of boosters in adults earlier in February, but left out data for 18- to 49-year-olds, according to a story published Sunday by The New York Times. The CDC believes the data is not yet ready to be released because of potential misinterpretation, The New York Times reported.
“Basically, at the end of the day, it’s not yet ready for prime time,” CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said, according to The New York Times. The agency’s “priority when gathering any data is to ensure that it’s accurate and actionable.”
The CDC has published only a tiny fraction of the Covid data it has collected, including critical data on boosters and hospitalizations, citing incomplete reports or fears of misinterpretation. Critics say the practice causes confusion. https://t.co/MUldVe6RGQ
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 21, 2022
The agency is also blaming outdated systems that are handling the large quantities of data.
“We want better, faster data that can lead to decision making and actions at all levels of public health, that can help us eliminate the lag in data that has held us back,” Dr. Daniel Jernigan, CDC’s deputy director for public health science and surveillance, said, according to The New York Times.
Outside doctors must now rely on data from Israel to make recommendations on the COVID vaccine.
“There’s no reason that they should be better at collecting and putting forth data than we were,” adviser to the Food and Drug Administration Dr. Paul Offit said about Israel. “The CDC is the principal epidemiological agency in this country, and so you would like to think the data came from them.”
Some outside doctors say the data would help build public trust. (‘We Can’t Expect Them To Tell Us How To Live’: NYT Writer Questions ‘Follow The Science’ Guidance)
“We have been begging for that sort of granularity of data for two years,” epidemiologist for the former Covid Tracking Project Jessica Malaty Rivera said. A better analysis “builds public trust, and it paints a much clearer picture of what’s actually going on.”
“We are at a much greater risk of misinterpreting the data with data vacuums, than sharing the data with proper science, communication and caveats,” Rivera said, reported The New York Times.