The use of "halted" in the NYT headline commonly means stop or end.
halted; halting; halts Definition of halt
(Entry 1 of 4)
intransitive verb
1 : to cease marching or journeying
2 : discontinue, terminate the project halted for lack of funds
transitive verb
1 : to bring to a stop the strike halted subways and buses
2 : to cause the discontinuance of : end halt hostilities
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/halt
on hold in American English
1. in a period or state of interruption or delay the countdown was on hold
2. in a state of interruption in a telephone call, as during a transfer to another line I was on hold for five minutes
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/on-h...
My issue is that it's not clear whether the patient's illness is due to the vaccine or something else, so headlining with 'adverse reaction to the vaccine' is jumping to a conclusion. They don't say 'possible', which is the truth.
So are they both misinformation, or are you painting with too broad of a brush?
“The event is being investigated by an independent committee, and it is too early to conclude the specific diagnosis.”
Here is an article from another newspaper, about the same thing: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/09/oxford-univers...
The headline is: "Oxford University Covid vaccine trial put on hold due to possible adverse reaction in participant"
Compared to NYT's "Covid-19 Live Updates: Vaccine Trial Is Halted After Patient’s Adverse Reaction"
Notice the difference between the two of them?