Top FDA vaccine official resignation, quoting Kennedy's “misinformation and lies”

Dr. Peter Marks, a top Food and Drug Administration vaccine official, resigned under pressure on Friday, saying Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s aggressive attitude towards the vaccine was irresponsible and posed a risk to the public.

“It became clear that truth and transparency are not wanted by the secretary, but rather that he wants a subordinate confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” Dr. Marks wrote To Sarah Brenner, the agency's representative. He repeated his emotions in the interview, saying, “This guy doesn't care about the truth. He cares about what makes him a follower.”

Dr. Marks resigned after being summoned to the Department of Health and Human Services Friday afternoon, and said he could quit or fire him, according to anyone familiar with the matter.

Dr. Marks led the Biology Evaluation and Research Center that approved and monitored vaccine safety and a wide range of other therapies, including cell and gene therapy. He was seen as a stable hand by many during the community pandemic, but was criticized. Overly generous For companies seeking approval for treatment Mixed evidence of profit.

Continuing surveillance of the FDA's vaccine program clearly led him to a conflict with the new health secretary. Since Kennedy was sworn in on February 13th, he has issued a series of directives on vaccine policy. He rattles off those who feared to use his powerful government authority to promote his decades-long campaign that claims vaccines are extremely harmful despite vast evidence of their role in saving millions of lives around the world.

“It is irresponsible to undermine trust in a well-established vaccine that meets the FDA's high standards of quality, safety and efficacy that are implemented for decades, and is harmful to public health and a clear risk to our country's health, safety and security,” wrote Dr. Marks.

For example, Kennedy I promoted the value Vitamin A is a treatment during the major measles outbreak in Texas, while underestimating the value of the vaccine. He has install Analysts with deep connections to the anti-vaccine movement are working on research examining the long-lived theory that vaccines are linked to autism.

And on Thursday, Kennedy told News Nation that he plans to establish a vaccine injury agency within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He said the effort was a priority for him and would help bring “the science of gold standard” to the federal government.

A spokesman for the HHS said in a statement Friday night that Dr. Marks would have no place in the FDA if he hadn't committed to transparency.

In his letter, Dr. Marks mentioned the fatal toll for measles in light of Kennedy's lukewarm advice on the emergent vaccination needs among many unvaccinated people in Texas and other states.

Dr. Marks wrote that through the widespread availability of vaccines, he “killed more than 100,000 children vaccinated last year in Africa and Asia.”

Dr. Marks added that he was willing to address Kennedy's concerns about vaccine safety and transparency in public meetings, and by working with national academics in science, engineering and medicine, he was rejected.

“I have done everything I can to work with them to restore confidence in the vaccine,” Dr. Marks said in an interview. “It became clear that it wasn't what they wanted.”

Dr. Marks added, leaving the FDA.

“His leadership has helped drive medical innovation and ensure life-saving treatment reach patients who need it most,” said Ellen V. Sigal, founder of the cancer research advocacy group Friends and a close ally of Dr. Marks. His departure “will create important voids,” she said.

Dr. Marks has guided the agency and its external advisors on the kind of evidence needed to pilot the FDA's vaccine program during the turbulent year of the coronavirus pandemic and grant emergency permits for vaccines produced under the Trump administration's operational speed initiative.

In June 2022, he appealed to a committee of external experts to consider the dangers the virus poses to children under the age of five. The panel voted later that day to recommend the vaccine for that age group.

“Because of the overwhelming number of deaths here, we need to be careful not to get paralyzed by the number of pediatric deaths,” says Dr. Marks. I said it at the time.

Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine expert at Baylor College of Medicine, said he spoke regularly with Dr. Marks during the pandemic. “He was very committed to using science to help the American people,” he said. “He was one of the heroes of the pandemic, so sorry to see him go.”

Dr. Marks was skeptical by some of the FDA, including former members of his own vaccine team. Two most senior regulators in the agency's vaccine office Resignation in 2021 Partly because of the Biden administration's efforts. Promote licensing Pfizer's coronavirus shot and Covid booster shot approval.

Kennedy is calling for further research into vaccine injuries, but Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, said such research has been a priority for decades already.

“I'm afraid this is a way to highlight vaccine damage in a way that is completely disproportionate to what the actual risk is,” he said.

Dr. Marks clearly shared these concerns. In his letter, he expressed his desire to limit the damage caused by the current administration.

“My hope” is that “the unprecedented attack on scientific truths that have negatively affected our country's public health over the next few years will come to an end, and our citizens will be able to fully benefit from the wide range of medical advances.”