Trump nominates Marty Makary, who opposed COVID vaccine mandates, to head FDA
President-elect Donald Trump Nominate Dr. Marty Makary leads Food and Drug Administration on Friday, choosing a surgeon and author who opposes vaccine authorization and other public health measures during the epidemic coronavirus Pandemic.
Macari, the Johns Hopkins University professor, is the latest in a series of Trump nominees to declare that the U.S. health system is “broken” and in need of restructuring.
Photography: Noam Galai/Getty Images for HBO
In books and articles, Macari has criticized the overprescribing of medications, the use of pesticides in food, and the undue influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies on doctors and government regulators.
Trump announced the nomination in a statement on Friday night, saying Macari would “restore the gold standard for scientific research to the FDA and cut the agency’s bureaucratic red tape to ensure Americans get what they deserve.” “Malkari must be confirmed by the Republican-led Senate.”
The FDA, headquartered in suburban Maryland outside Washington, has 18,000 employees and is responsible for the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs, vaccines and medical devices, as well as a range of other consumer products including food, cosmetics and vaping products. These products account for an estimated 20% of annual U.S. consumer spending, or $2.6 trillion.
Makari has gained attention on Fox News and other conservative outlets for his contrarian views during the COVID-19 pandemic. He questioned the need for masks, and while he is not opposed to COVID-19 vaccinations, Makary expressed concerns about vaccinations for young children.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that COVID-19 vaccinations prevented more than 686,000 deaths in the United States in 2020 and 2021 alone. While children are hospitalized and die from the virus at much lower rates, medical societies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have concluded that vaccinations can significantly reduce serious illness in this age group.
Makary, a surgeon and cancer specialist, is part of an outspoken group of doctors calling for a greater emphasis on herd immunity to stop the virus, or the belief that mass infections will quickly lead to population-level protection.
In February 2021 Wall Street Journal Article“COVID-19 will largely disappear by April, allowing Americans to return to normal life,” he wrote. That summer, the Delta variant of the virus swept the United States, followed by omicron in the winter, killing hundreds of thousands.
If Macari is diagnosed and is an anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Also confirmed as Trump’s pick to oversee the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the FDA, Macari will likely report to Kennedy. Macari disagrees with Kennedy’s distrust of vaccines, but he shares a similar distrust of the pharmaceutical industry.
Makary lamented that drug manufacturers use misleading data to urge doctors to prescribe OxyContin and other opioids as low-risk, non-addictive painkillers. This marketing was allowed under FDA-approved labeling in the 1990s, which indicated that the drugs were safe for treating common conditions such as back pain.
In recent years, the FDA has been criticized for approving drugs to treat Alzheimer’s, ALS and other diseases based on incomplete data that failed to show meaningful benefits for patients.
Pushing for closer scrutiny of drug safety and effectiveness would be a major shift for the FDA, which for decades has focused on speeding drug approvals. This trend is driven by industry lobbying and payments by drugmakers to help the FDA hire more reviewers.
Kennedy proposed ending these payments, which would require billions of dollars in new funding from the federal budget.
Other government priorities may encounter similar obstacles. For example, Kennedy wants to ban drug manufacturers from advertising on television, a multibillion-dollar market that supports many television and cable networks. Experts say the Supreme Court and other conservative justices are likely to overturn such bans on First Amendment grounds that protect commercial speech.
Macari will also inherit some of the ongoing projects started by outgoing FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, including a reorganization of the agency’s food division and plans to regulate artificial intelligence in medical technology.
If other controversial moves are made under Trump, career staff may simply stall the work until a new administration takes office.
“The bureaucracy can wait for anyone to quit, and I think you’ll hear that attitude a lot,” said Wayne Pines, a former FDA official in both Republican and Democratic administrations.
