US vaccine chief jumps ship citing RFK 'lies': Media
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The top US vaccine official resigned on Friday, citing the "misinformation and lies" being spread by the incoming health secretary, according to reports.
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Dr. Peter Marks, Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research within the Food and Drug Administration, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on the federal coronavirus response on Capitol Hill in Washington, on March 18, 2021 (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool)
Reports said that the top US vaccine official resigned on Friday, citing the "misinformation and lies" he said were peddled by the incoming health secretary.
The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal report that Dr. Peter Marks was removed from his role in the FDA's vaccine division as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. assumes leadership.
Kennedy, a well-known vaccine skeptic, now leads HHS, while Marks, who has been with the FDA since 2012 and played a key role in the US COVID-19 vaccine rollout, is stepping down.
In his resignation letter, cited by the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, Marks condemned what he called an "unprecedented assault on scientific truth" driven by Kennedy and his supporters.
He said: "It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies."
During his first term, Donald Trump championed "Project Warp Speed," which fast-tracked COVID-19 vaccine development. However, in his second term, he appointed 71-year-old Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary, despite Kennedy’s long-standing promotion of unverified claims that vaccines are ineffective or linked to childhood diseases.
An HHS spokesman reacted to Marks' resignation by stating that if he "does not want to get behind restoring science to its golden standard and promoting radical transparency, then he has no place at the FDA under the strong leadership of Secretary Kennedy," according to the WSJ.
On a related note, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the nation's health agencies would lose 10,000 positions from their 82,000-person staff, a massive decrease that the US health secretary described as reducing federal bureaucracy despite internal opposition to the administration's goal.
The layoffs announced on Thursday, along with earlier restructuring and voluntary buyouts, mean that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would lose around 20,000 employees.
After being appointed to Trump's transitional government as the secretary of the United States' top health agency, RFK Jr. expressed his gratitude and ambitiously pledged to "end the chronic disease epidemic" and "Make America Healthy Again."
US to cut vaccine aid for underdeveloped countries
On Wednesday, the Trump administration planned to terminate US financial support for Gavi, the global vaccine alliance that has played a critical role in immunizing children in developing nations, saving millions of lives over the past 25 years, The New York Times reported.
Additionally, the administration intended to significantly reduce funding for malaria eradication efforts, despite the disease being one of the world's leading causes of death.
However, the Trump administration opted to continue certain key grants, including funding for medications to treat HIV and tuberculosis, as well as food aid for countries affected by civil wars and natural disasters.
These decisions are outlined in a 281-page spreadsheet sent by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to Congress on Monday night, detailing which foreign aid programs will be continued or terminated, according to the NYT.
The documents provide a sweeping overview of the administration’s significant retreat from a five-decade effort to position the US as a global leader in humanitarian aid and the fight against infectious diseases.
