\ud83c\udf18Subscribe to 404 Media to get The Abstract, our newsletter about the most exciting and mind-boggling science news and studies of the week. Researchers are raising alarms over \u201cunexplained pauses\u201d that have interrupted dozens of U.S. federal health surveillance databases covering vaccinations and overdose deaths during the second Trump administration. The breakdown is creating critical gaps in public health according to a study published on Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine.During 2025, nearly half (46 percent) of 82 routinely-updated databases managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) experienced delays or total cessations of new data, an interdisciplinary team reports in their new audit. The majority (87 percent) of the affected databases monitor vaccination-related topics, and most experienced data blackouts for a period of more than six months as of late October 2025.\u201cSuch long pauses may have compromised evidence for decision making and policies by clinicians, administrators, professional organizations, and policymakers,\u201d wrote the researchers led by Jeremy W. Jacobs, an assistant professor of pathology, microbiology and immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.\u201cWithout current data on disease burden, vaccination coverage, behavioral health indicators, and demographic disparities, clinicians cannot identify emerging threats or focus on meeting the needs of specific populations,\u201d the team continued. \u201cWithout safeguards, unexplained pauses in surveillance undermine evidence-based medicine and erode public trust at a time when both are critically needed.\u201dThe affected CDC databases collect surveillance information from hospitals, research centers, and other sources to monitor dangerous situations\u2014like infectious disease outbreaks or upticks in drug overdoses\u2014and provide real-time aid and guidance to assist local health authorities. As of December 2025, only one of the paused databases identified in the October survey had been updated.\u00a0Over the course of the past year, the team wrote, federal health databases have seen “unprecedented removal and undocumented alteration.\u201d They speculated that the interruptions are related to the Trump administration\u2019s major cuts to federal staff and budgets across the U.S. government, including at the CDC and the National Institute of Health, which likely played a role in disrupting data collection and updates to technical infrastructure.\u00a0The disproportionate impact on vaccination-related databases also reflect the priorities of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump\u2019s Health and Human Services secretary, who has spread misinformation about vaccines, reduced the childhood vaccine schedule, and fired leading scientific advisors and CDC officials who have pushed back on his views.\u201cVaccination tracking is particularly vulnerable because it requires ongoing coordination across federal, state, and health care system data sources,\u201d the researchers said. \u201cVaccination surveillance identifies groups with greater challenges to access and equity by stratifying by age, race and ethnicity, geographic jurisdiction, and insurance coverage. The ability to address these disparities has been compromised precisely when such information is most needed to counter misinformation and target outreach.\u201dIn an editorial published alongside the study, Jeanne Marrazzo, a physician and CEO of the Infectious Disease Society of America, called the new study \u201cdamning\u201d and said it exposed \u201ctampering with evidence\u201d and \u201cselective silencing.” She warns that the loss of updated data in these systems could lead to \u201cdire\u201d consequences, including delayed responses to disease outbreaks, and a loss of public trust in federal health institutions.\u201cThe administration\u2019s antivaccine stance has interrupted the reliable flow of the data we need to keep Americans safe from preventable infections,\u201d said Marrazzo, who was not an author of the study.\u201cThe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, who has stated baldly that the CDC failed to protect Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic, is now enacting a self-fulfilling prophecy,\u201d she warned. \u201cThe CDC as it currently exists is no longer the stalwart, reliable source of public health data that for decades has set the global bar for rigorous public health practice.\u201d\ud83c\udf18Subscribe to 404 Media to get The Abstract, our newsletter about the most exciting and mind-boggling science news and studies of the week. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"