FDA's Top Vaccine Regulator Resigns Amid Restructuring of HHS and Other Public Health Agencies

The FDA’s top vaccine regulator, Peter Marks, has resigned, according to an official at the HHS.

NBC News reports that “a person familiar with the matter [said] that Marks was forced out.” Marks wrote in his resignation letter to the FDA commissioner that undermining confidence in vaccines is “irresponsible, detrimental to public health, and a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety, and security.”

Marks further wrote that he was “willing to work with [HHS secretary] Kennedy to address any concerns about vaccine safety and transparency,” but it “became clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary.” Marks played a “key role in authorizing the first COVID vaccines in late 2020” and “helped launch Operation Warp Speed, the first Trump administration’s private-public partnership to quickly develop the vaccines.” Kennedy filed a “citizens’ petition in 2021 requesting that the FDA revoke the authorization of the vaccines.” Kennedy also recently said in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News that “the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine ‘does cause deaths every year.’”

The AP reported on a statement given by former FDA commissioner Robert Califf, who said that the issues raised in Marks’ resignation letter “should be frightening to anyone committed to the importance of evidence to guide policies and patient decisions.” Marks’ resignation also comes in the wake of news that “HHS plans to lay off 10,000 workers and shut down entire agencies,” as HPN reported on. Kennedy has criticized the FDA as “an inefficient ‘sprawling bureaucracy,’” and he “also faulted the department’s 82,000 workers for a decline in America’s health.”