Nearly Half of Once Frequently Updated CDC Databases Are Now Outdated

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been monitoring public health trends since as far back as 1946. However, recent changes in federal policies surrounding health sciences have significantly affected this activity. In 2025, there were many instances of sudden removal or alteration of CDC databases, and these changes largely occurred with no accompanying documentation or explanation.^1-3

Some databases remain accessible to the public but are no longer updated as regularly as they used to be, if at all. In a new study, researchers investigated how many databases fell into this category.⁴ They discovered that in October 2025, during the longest government shutdown in US history, 46 percent of CDC surveillance databases that used to be updated monthly no longer received the same attention. Among these, 89 percent had no new entries for six months or more prior to the analysis date, and 87 percent of these covered vaccine-related topics. Such substantial pauses and stops may prevent policy makers and clinicians from making informed decisions for the public’s well-being.

In the study, the researchers obtained information on all CDC databases from the center’s public catalog, such as their titles and how often they were updated. They sought databases that were active and updated at least monthly prior to 2025. Out of nearly 1,400 databases, 82 fit this criterion. The researchers categorized the databases into four topic categories: vaccination, infectious diseases, public health, and unrelated to healthcare.

The team discovered that 38 databases (46 percent) paused updates without explanation. Of these, 34 (89 percent) had not been updated since April 2025 or earlier in the year, and 33 (87 percent) reported trends related to vaccination. In contrast, none of the 44 databases that still received monthly or more frequent updates covered vaccination-related topics. The researchers checked these databases’ status again in December 2025 to account for possible seasonal pauses, but their findings held mostly true—only one of the 38 paused databases had been updated.

The researchers noted that drastic budget and personnel cuts might have contributed to these disruptions. In addition, they pointed out that the timeline of the surveillance pauses coincided with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment as Secretary of Health and Human Services. The researchers expressed their concern surrounding the fact that the pause mostly affected vaccine-related databases, which aligned with Kennedy’s skepticism about vaccines.

They warned that such sudden, unexplained halts in public health surveillance may lead to decisions based on outdated data that put Americans at risk and erode public trust in evidence-based medicine.