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# FDA Needs Procedures for Reporting Political Interference: GAO
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-needs-procedures-for-reporting-political-interference-gao/
- Published: 2022-04-20T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T17:41:22.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5151640

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) [report](https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-104613.pdf?ref=fdaweb.com) recommends that FDA and other HHS agencies develop procedures for reporting and addressing allegations of political interference and train staff on how to report such allegations. It found that FDA officials did not identify any formally reported internal allegations of political interference in scientific decision-making from 2010 to 2021 despite observing such interference. FDA staff interviewed by GAO said political interference in scientific decision-making was not formally reported because they feared retaliation, did not know how to report the interference, or believed senior FDA leaders were already aware of the interference.

GAO’s report said that a few respondents from CDC and FDA “stated they felt that the potential political interference they observed resulted in the alteration or suppression of scientific findings. Some of these respondents believed that this potential political interference may have resulted in the politically motivated alteration of public health guidance or delayed publication of Covid-19-related scientific findings.”

Several allegations of political interference have surfaced during the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, GAO noted that in 5/2020 (Trump Administration) a senior government official claimed HHS retaliated against him for disclosing, among other things, “concerns about inappropriate political interference to make chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine available to the public as treatments for Covid-19\. Additionally, in 7/2021 \[Biden Administration\], for example, several members of Congress criticized CDC for allegedly revising its face mask guidance for political purposes.”

Interestingly, former Trump administration FDA commissioner **Stephen Hahn** last year urged more independence for the agency to prevent political interference. Hahn will likely be remembered as the most politicized commissioner in recent history and for how he sought to preserve the agency’s science-based gold standard by dismissing further White House meddling as the Covid-19 vaccines were being shepherded toward approval in late 2020 ([see earlier story](https://www.fdaweb.com/report-chronicles-hahns-politicized-career-at-fda/)).

Hahn was put in office just weeks before the pandemic raced across the country. Americans’ first look at the new commissioner was when he shared the podium with President Trump 3/19/2020 to discuss an emergency use authorization (EUA) for hydroxychloroquine, touted by Trump as a miracle drug for treating Covid-19\. In less than three months, however, FDA revoked the EUA based on “emerging scientific data” that questioned the drug’s effectiveness and safety for Covid patients ([see earlier story](https://www.fdaweb.com/fda-nixes-hydroxychloroquine-emergency-use/)).

The hydroxychloroquine debacle was followed by an EUA for Covid-19 convalescent plasma that Hahn assisted Trump in promoting as another miracle therapy. Hahn had to immediately walk back his interpretation of data that supported the plasma EUA ([see earlier story](https://www.fdaweb.com/hahn-has-mea-culpa-moment-on-plasma-therapy-data/)). He was also criticized on the timing of the EUA announcement — on the eve of the Republican National Convention.

Reacting to the GAO report, officials from CDC and FDA acknowledged the need to strengthen agency procedures for reporting and addressing potential political interference in scientific decision-making. “FDA officials told us the agency is planning to develop new procedures for reporting and addressing political interference in scientific decision-making,” the report said.