The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official says he hopes to find common ground with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been chosen Thursday by President-elect Donald Trump as head of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“What I would ask him to do is keep an open mind. We’re happy to try to show as much data as possible. And I think the data is essentially overwhelming, in some areas, but we’re going to we just have to engage in dialogue,” said Dr. Peter Marks, speaking at an event hosted by the Milken Institute in Washington, DC, this week, before Trump’s decision.
Kennedy insisted he was not “anti-vaccine” and pledged not to ban vaccines under Trump. Instead, Kennedy promised to “restore transparency” around vaccine safety data and records that he accuses HHS officials of hiding.
Marks flatly rebuked Kennedy’s claims about security data.
“There are no secret files. I mean, if they are secret, I have a security clearance. If they are secret from me, then they must be at another classification level,” a- he declared.
Public health experts have objected to Kennedy’s many misleading statements questioning the safety of vaccines and fear he could upend decades of hard-won improvements. vaccination rate against deadly diseases.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a watchdog group that has often clashed with the FDA, likened the choice to “putting a flat Earther in charge of NASA.”
Marks, a career civil servant who played a key role in launching the Trump administration’s agenda. Operation Warp Speed response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, says he “sat in the room” across from Kennedy when vaccines were discussed multiple times.
Although he said he was concerned that spending time “questioning things that we know work” could undermine other important FDA efforts – and could be potentially deadly when ‘a future pandemic if it further erodes confidence in vaccines — Marks also said that working with RFK Jr. could prove to have a silver lining.
“Maybe starting this dialogue, especially if it takes place in a public place, it could help. It could help rally some of the rest of the country because sometimes, as someone is convinced, can- be that part of the rest of the country will be,” he said.
Greg Nash/The Hill/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Marks rejected Kennedy’s claims that the FDA is filled with corrupt officials who need to be fired, emphasizing that the staff is dedicated to protecting the health of Americans. Marks said he hoped to keep his position under Trump and Kennedy and protect the team at his center.
“They’re doing what they’re doing to protect the American people. Not for any nefarious purpose. And during the COVID pandemic, people were working 14-hour days,” Marks said of the agency’s staff.
Kennedy pledged to end what he called the agency’s “war on public health,” warning workers who are “part of this corrupt system” to “pack their bags.”
He also specifically pledged to fire all nutrition scientists at the FDA and other agencies on his first day, accusing them of being co-opted by corporate interests.
“I look forward to working with more than 80,000 HHS employees to free the agencies from the stifling cloud of corporate capture so they can continue their mission to make Americans once again the healthiest people health on Earth,” Kennedy said. job Thursday the X.
Asked about Kennedy’s scientific expertise, Marks said he thought Kennedy’s understanding was “not as deep as other people’s,” but added, “I know a number of lawyers who know about it.” more than most medical doctors and doctors. a matter of keeping an open mind.”
While Kennedy’s choice for the position was just announced Thursday, health officials have been preparing for this eventuality for some time. During the campaign, Trump vowed that he would let Kennedy go wild on health care if he won.
“President Trump wants to see, he told me, he wants to see a concrete, measurable decrease in chronic disease within two years,” Kennedy said on November 9.
Kennedy says he called on Trump to declare a state of emergency to fight chronic disease, strengthening his authority to tackle what he sees as the root causes of the federal government’s failure to fight against rising rates of diseases ranging from autism to obesity.
“To get there, we have to act very, very quickly. And we have to treat this with the same type of urgency that we did, the COVID outbreak. It’s a thousand times worse than COVID,” he said. Kennedy said.
