The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it has not published certain coronavirus vaccine data yet because it may lead to misinformation.
Earlier this month, according to a story by The New York Times, the CDC published new data on the effectiveness of booster shots for adults, but left out data for 18- to 49-year-olds.
The Times reported that the CDC is not ready to release the data because it could potentially be misinterpreted.
CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said, “Basically, at the end of the day, it’s not yet ready for prime time”. The agency’s “priority when gathering any data is to ensure that it’s accurate and actionable”.
Outdated systems handling the large quantities of data are also taking the blame.
“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,” said Dr. Daniel Jernigan, the CDC’s deputy director for public health science and surveillance.
Outside doctors must reportedly rely on data from Israel in order to make recommendations about the COVID vaccine.
Adviser to the Food and Drug Administration Dr. Paul Offit said, “There’s no reason that they should be better at collecting and putting forth data than we were”. “The CDC is the principal epidemiological agency in this country, and so you would like to think the data came from them”.
An 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,” reported the Times.
“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 added.
