Unexplained Pauses in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Surveillance: Erosion of the Public Evidence Base for Health Policy

Real-time federal surveillance of diseases and health care delivery informs clinical guidance and public health policy. However, in 2025, some U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) databases seemed to have "unexplained pauses" and ceased or delayed updates. The CDC public data catalog was audited to identify paused databases that had previously been updated at least monthly and evaluated their characteristics. Of 1359 catalog records examined on 28 October 2025, eighty-two were previously updated at least monthly. On the basis of each database's stated periodicity, allowing for an additional 30-day grace period, their status was classified as either current or paused as of 28 October 2025. Forty-four databases (54%) were current, and 38 (46%) were paused. Thirty-four of the 38 databases (89%) had no data entries dated within 6 months of the date of analysis, whereas 4 (11%) paused more recently. Of the 38 paused databases, 33 (87%) were vaccination-related topics compared with none of the 44 current databases. Of the 5 paused databases on other topics, 4 addressed respiratory diseases, including disease burden and nonvaccine prevention measures, whereas 1 addressed public health (drug overdose deaths). The persistence of pauses as of 2 December 2025 was examined. Only 1 of the 38 paused databases had been updated. Such long pauses may have compromised evidence for decision making and policies by clinicians, administrators, professional organizations, and policymakers. Federal databases should adopt minimum transparency standards, including displaying the current update status, with a rationale if paused, and next expected update with criteria for resumption. Without such standards, unexplained pauses in surveillance risk undermining evidence-based medicine and public trust.