MySQL 8.0

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select version();


version()


8.0.36


create table t (id int, response json);
insert into t values (1, 
    '{
        "event_id":"11111",
        "contact":{
            "contact_id":"as2344",
            "answers": [{"answer_id":"2223e"}],
            "tags":"cadd76",
            "question_id":"67888"
        }
      }')  
  ;
select json_remove(response, '$.contact.answers', '$.contact.tags') new_response
from t


new_response


{"contact": {"contact_id": "as2344", "question_id": "67888"}, "event_id": "11111"}


update t
set response = json_remove(response, '$.contact.answers', '$.contact.tags') 

Rows matched: 1  Changed: 1  Warnings: 0