The article was published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly (MMW), which is just about the worldwide gold standard for analyzing disease data.
And yes, as soon as this was published, I saw a flood of comments online about how the CDC can no longer be trusted and accusing the CDC of bowing to political pressure (despite the article only being published, not generated, by the CDC). All because the study contradicts what they want to believe. If you want to question a study, fine, go ahead, but do it on the merits of the study design or data interpretation. A priori assumptions that a study must be flawed or biased because it doesn't reinforce what people want to be true are part of the reason we're still in this mess today.