Johns Hopkins Surgeon Eyed for FDA Top Job
Johns Hopkins surgeon and public policy researcher Marty Makary is reportedly on the shortlist to be nominated by president-elect Donald Trump as FDA commissioner under his new administration. Trump aids are offering words of caution that the pick is not final, according to a Bloomberg news report. “President-elect Trump is making decisions on who will serve in his second administration,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told the news service. “Those decisions will continue to be announced by him when they are made.” Several other news outlets have also been reporting on Makary’s potential selection.
Regarding his background, Makary is a hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgeon. At Johns Hopkins, he is chief of Islet Transplant Surgery and a surgery professor at its school of medicine. “He is the recipient of the Nobility in Science Award from the National Pancreas Foundation and has been a visiting professor at over 25 medical schools,” according to his bio at the school. “He has published over 250 peer-reviewed scientific articles and has served on several editorial boards.”
Makary has been very critical of U.S. government health agencies and their handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and related vaccine mandates. Last year, he testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic that “the greatest perpetrator of misinformation during the pandemic has been the United States government.” Examples of misinformation he said included that Covid was spread through surface transmission, that vaccinated immunity was far greater than natural immunity, that masks were effective, and that myocarditis was more common after the infection than after the vaccine (he said it is up to 28 times more common after the vaccine).
As recently as 11/17 on Fox News Sunday, Makary came to Robert F Kennedy Jr.’s defense after critics have been slamming his nomination to head HHS. “I think if we listen to what he's talking about, he's very clear about what he wants to do,” Makary said about RFK Jr.. “Number one, he wants to address corruption in healthcare and corruption in our government health agencies. A lot of people don't like that message, and they’re threatened by it. Number two, he wants to get back to evidence-based research, and he wants to fund research that’s going to answer the big questions of our day. And number three, he wants to address the child chronic disease epidemic… He is talking about health and chronic diseases. It shouldn’t be a political message, and I think you're seeing a lot of people unite around that message.”
Asked about RFK Jr.’s vaccine skepticism and his authority over agencies that regulate them and public health if he is confirmed, Makary said “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, and he’s not going to remove or take away anyone’s vaccines.” Makary said people should not be scared of RFK Jr., rather the “food pyramid lie that’s been out there for 60 years, or the medical establishment that lied to us about opioids for 20 years, saying it was nonaddictive, and vaccine mandates that ignored natural immunity. That’s what’s driving a lot of the distrust in the medical establishment, it's not RFK Jr.”
Bloomberg cited mixed opinions from Wall Street analysts on Makary getting the FDA top job. He “could make the agency more suspicious of, rather than collaborative with, drugmakers,” analysts from RBC Capital Markets wrote in an 11/20 note. Makary’s outlook on the drug industry and overhauling FDA seem to align with Kennedy’s positions, but “we do not see fundamental impacts” to the agency’s position on most biotech innovation, Jefferies Financial Group analysts wrote. Mizuho analyst Jared Holz wrote that a Makary nomination could be seen positively by Wall Street. “His stances on modern medicine, including but not limited to new therapies and Covid-19 vaccine adoption, look to be very pragmatic,” he said.