A senior FDA official has been forced to resign by the Trump administration. Peter Marks, the top FDA official responsible for the regulation of vaccines, gene therapies and the blood supply, was told Friday he would be fired if he did not resign. In Marks’s letter of resignation, he said he attempted to address all the concerns of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the safety of routine childhood vaccinations. “However, it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” Marks said in his resignation letter.
In another major shake-up of a federal health agency, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has given the HHS emergency response unit two days (this weekend) to completely restructure the unit and its 1,000 employees. The mission of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, created under George W. Bush, is to prepare for and manage emergencies such as hurricanes and infectious disease outbreaks. The agency also includes the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which helps to develop innovative biomedical technology. BARDA had a vital role in the COVID-19 response.
