The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official says he hopes to find common ground with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who Picked on Thursday by newly elected President Donald Trump as head of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“What I would ask of him is that he keep an open mind. We like to try to show as much data as possible. And I think the data is essentially overwhelming in certain areas, but we’ll just do it.” must enter into dialogue,” said Dr. Peter Marks, speaking this week at an event hosted by the Milken Institute in Washington, DC, ahead of Trump’s decision.
Kennedy has insisted he is not “anti-vaccine” and has pledged not to ban vaccines under Trump. Instead of, Kennedy promised it to “restore transparency” around vaccine safety data and records that he accuses HHS officials of hiding.
Marks bluntly rebuked Kennedy’s claims about the security data.
“There are no classified files. I mean, if they are classified, I have a security clearance. If they are classified to me, they must be at a different classification level,” he said.
Public health experts have objected to Kennedy’s long record of misleading statements questioning the safety of vaccines and worry he could undo decades of hard-fought victories in improving vaccine safety. vaccination rate in return for fatal 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 Operation Warp Speed response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, says he has sat “in the room” across from Kennedy when vaccines were discussed several times.
Though he said he worries that spending time “relitigating things we know works” could undermine other important FDA efforts — and potentially be deadly during a future pandemic if the trust in the vaccines — Marks also said that the partnership with RFK Jr. could have a positive edge.
‘Maybe it can help to start that dialogue, especially if it is in a public location. It might help to get some of the rest of the country on board, because sometimes if someone is convinced, maybe some of the rest of the country will too. ” he said.
Greg Nash/The Hill/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Marks rejected Kennedy’s claim that the FDA is filled with corrupt officials who should be fired, emphasizing that the staff is committed to protecting American health. Marks said he hopes to keep his job under Trump and Kennedy and protect the team at his center.
“They do what they do to protect the American people. Not for any nefarious purpose. And during the COVID pandemic, people were working 14 hours a day,” Marks said of the agency’s staff.
Kennedy has vowed to end what he calls the agency’s “war on public health,” warning employees who are “part of this corrupt system” to “pack your bags.”
He has also specifically promised to fire all food 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 HHS’s more than 80,000 employees to free the agencies from the suffocating cloud of corporate domination so they can pursue their mission to once again make Americans the healthiest people on earth,” Kennedy said. posted Thursday on X.
Asked about Kennedy’s scientific expertise, Marks said he thought Kennedy’s knowledge “is not as deep as others,” but added, “I know some lawyers who know more than most PhDs and MDs about medicine.” So it doesn’t depend on the degree. a matter of keeping an open mind.”
While Kennedy’s choice for the role was just announced Thursday, health officials have been preparing for the possibility for some time. During the campaign, Trump promised that he would let Kennedy “go wild” on health issues if he won.
“President Trump wants to see, I’ve been told, within two years he wants to see a concrete, measurable reduction in chronic disease,” Kennedy said on November 9.
Kennedy says he has called on Trump to declare a state of emergency to combat chronic diseases, strengthening his authority to address what he sees as the root causes of the federal government’s inability to stem rising rates of a range of tackle conditions from autism to obesity.
‘To do that, we have to operate very, very quickly. And we need to treat this with the same urgency as we did, the COVID epidemic. This is a thousand times worse than COVID,” Kennedy said.
