NBC News The agency plays a key role in tracking disease spread and vaccination rates. Last year, it seemed to back away from some of that work, according to new research. Nearly half of the databases that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used to update regularly — surveillance systems that tracked public health information like Covid vaccination rates and hospitalizations for respiratory syncytial virus — have been paused without explanation, according to new research.
The findings, published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, indicate that at the start of 2025, the CDC maintained 82 databases that were updated at least monthly. But by the end of October, the study found, 38 had gone stale, with 34 showing no new entries at all in the previous six months.
“These unexplained pauses started predominantly in March and April 2025, shortly after Mr. Trump assumed the presidency and Mr. Kennedy was confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services,” the researchers wrote.
Although the CDC is perhaps best known for issuing public health advisories and recommendations, the agency also plays a key role as a national record-keeper, tracking the spread of infections and uptake of vaccines in as close to real time as possible.