Big Pharma Millions Behind Attacks On Trump’s FDA Nominee
The Senate should confirm Marty Makary, a highly qualified doctor and powerful advocate of oversight
President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins University to be commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Makary, the New York Times reported, has a “contrarian streak” and “ignited controversy by declaring in early 2021 that herd immunity from previous infections… was just weeks away, eliciting a considerable outcry from other doctors.” NBC, ABC, and others all highlighted this error.
Yet Makary’s views about herd immunity were shared by Dr. Anthony Fauci, then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), who predicted that the US would see signs of herd immunity by late March or early April 2021. Media outlets like the Times have consistently been willing to ignore and excuse Fauci’s mistakes, reserving criticism only for those who opposed authoritarian and unscientific Covid restrictions, like Makary.
Makary has recently defended Trump’s controversial nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), saying, “I would say people should not dissect what he said 30 years ago, and listen to what he’s saying now. He’s saying very clearly he’s not anti-vax, he’s not going to remove or take away anyone’s vaccines.”
These comments are dishonest, says Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and adviser to the FDA on vaccines. Kennedy has only recently moderated his view of vaccines, and “That somebody like Marty Makary sort of whitewashes his opinions, in order to get a position in the administration, is even more upsetting,” Offit told the New York Times. Makary is “willing to lie to the American public,” Offit said to NBC. “Why do we think this is someone who should head the FDA?”