When Regulators Bravely Stand Up for Science
Peter Marks’ FDA Resignation Letter Shows the Utter Chaos Under RFK Jr
Yesterday, the Director at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Peter Marks, was forced to resign from his post. If he had not resigned, RFK Jr would have fired him. In the process, Marks sent a resignation letter to Sara Brenner, the Acting Commissioner of Food and Drugs at the FDA.
In the letter, he pulled no punches in addressing the Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, as a “liar” whose “assault on science” is “undermining public confidence” in public health. According to Marks, Kennedy’s politics are “irresponsible, detrimental to public health, and a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety and security.”
Peter Marks bravely did what more members of the scientific, research and academic communities need to do: speak out against the anti-science zealots presently dismantling the evidence-based public health approach, spreading fear and misinformation that will cost countless lives.
Marks’ letter seems to have been removed from many sites (like Scribd) so the Firebreak reproduced it here and analyzed the most salient features below.
Attack the Big Fish First
While Kennedy claims his restructuring of the HHS agencies is part of a larger government-wide cost cutting strategy, he appears to be purging the HHS, FDA and NIH of many adversaries. Cuts are expected to remove 20,000 employees from RFK’s 80,000 workforce, so it is no surprise that he is frying the big fish first.
Marks was credited with leading Operation Warp Speed to develop a COVID-19 vaccine in record time. In his resignation letter, Peter Marks reminds us that President Trump and the entire FDA supported a vaccine RFK Jr has repeatedly reviled:
“... during the COVID-19 pandemic I had the privilege of watching the vision that I conceived for Operation Warp Speed in March 2020 in collaboration with Dr. Robert Kadlec become a reality under the leadership of HHS Secretary Azar and President Trump due to the unwavering commitment of public servants at FDA and elsewhere across the government.”
Marks can be credited with saving hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives by creating the framework to develop a new vaccine for an emergent virus in less than a year. His achievement also allowed the entire world to start to restore some normalcy and break free from the debilitating lockdowns. This is definitely someone RFK Jr would not want to have in the room when he tries to dictate his health agenda.
RFK Jr’s dismantling of the government’s capacity to rapidly develop new vaccines is met with an ominous warning:
“Individuals who participated in these responses remain at the ready to address the infectious threats that undoubtedly will confront us in the coming years, including H5N1, which is now on our threshold. Efforts currently being advanced by some on the adverse health effects of vaccination are concerning.”
As the H5N1 strain of bird flu is capable of cross-species transmission to mammals, it might be a good idea to have a team who could quickly develop a vaccine (like the one Marks had created in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic). Unless of course you are a sociopathic zealot advancing fears of adverse health effects from vaccines ... then that would definitely be “concerning”.
The “Clear Danger” of This “Liar”
The Marks resignation letter looks with more than mere concern at RFK Jr’s nonplussed attitude toward the present measles outbreak in many US states.
“The ongoing multistate measles outbreak that is particularly severe in Texas reminds us of what happens when confidence in well-established science underlying public health and well-being is undermined. Measles, which killed more than 100,000 unvaccinated children last year in Africa and Asia owing to pneumonitis and encephalitis caused by the virus, had been eliminated from our shores.”
Peter Marks nailed the most important responsibility of a health secretary or director: to promote “confidence in the well-established science underlying public health and well-being”. The reality is that Robert F Kennedy Jr is undermining this confidence and is failing to responsibly carry out one of his most important duties as secretary. If the public does not trust its health authorities, then superstition and fear will rule supreme. RFK Jr has not only thrown doubt on the scientific institutions, but has also mainstreamed a fringe group of naturopath cult conspiracy zealots.
Marks does not mince words on what he thinks of this.
“Undermining confidence in well-established vaccines that have met the high standards for quality, safety, and effectiveness that have been in place for decades at FDA is irresponsible, detrimental to public health, and a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety and security.”
The scientific, research, academic and regulatory communities need more people with the courage to call opportunistic grifters like RFK Jr and Dr Oz for what they truly are: “a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety and security”.
Could Marks’ resignation letter get any more critical of the present HHS secretary?
“As you are aware, I was willing to work to address the Secretary’s concerns regarding vaccine safety and transparency by hearing from the public and implementing a variety of different public meetings and engagements with the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. However, 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.”
Perhaps in the present US government administration, commitment to truth and transparency may not be held in high regard, but in the field of public health, trust is primordial. Having the head of Health and Human Services habitually spreading “misinformation and lies” is not conducive to the promotion of trust in our public health authorities.
“Consult your doctor” is fast becoming “Consult your shaman”.
What can a scientist do in such an environment? Many who have spoken up risk having their careers ruined. It seems that their only hope is to try to keep the flame burning and hope this madness comes to an end. Marks concludes his letter:
“My hope is that during the coming years, the unprecedented assault on scientific truth that has adversely impacted public health in our nation comes to an end so that the citizens of our country can fully benefit from the breadth of advances in medical science.”
I do not share Peter Mark’s “hope” for a quick return to sanity. Kennedy is using the charade of the general reorganization of the federal government as a smokescreen to systematically remove any scientist or credible researcher from his health agencies, panels and pool of grant recipients. It may take a generation for researchers to restore scientific credibility to these bodies and even longer for the public to once again trust their evidence. Like the “assault on scientific truth” of biotech (GMO) research in Europe in the 1990s to 2010s, a generation of European researchers simply emigrated (to the benefit of other countries).
The keepers of the flame of scientific reason need to be taking a blow torch to the liars, grifters and opportunists presently in power. I salute the courage of Peter Marks and call for more scientists to stand up for the truth, for public health and for humanity.