FDA Infighting Won't Make America Well

We Deserve Functional FDA, Not a Dysfunctional Circus

For years, America has been told to "trust the experts."

But what happens when the experts can't trust each other?

What happens when the agency responsible for food safety, drug approvals, and the health of 330 million Americans collapses into infighting, ego battles, and corruption?

From the MAHA perspective, the answer is simple: the American people suffer, while Washington bureaucrats protect themselves.

Under Commissioner Marty Makary, the FDA has moved from quiet dysfunction to full-blown crisis. Instead of protecting the public, the agency's leadership is busy protecting turf, seemingly silencing dissent, and pushing out experienced staff.

Instead of transparency, we seemingly get obfuscation.

Instead of stability, we get chaos.

And instead of serving America, the FDA has become a battlefield for internal power struggles.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the collapse of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). Under Dr. Vinay Prasad, CBER has ejected at least seven senior leaders, watched hundreds of veteran staff flee, and blocked transfers in a frantic attempt to keep the ship from sinking.

CBER workers — who oversee vaccines, biologics, blood safety, and gene therapies — are burned out, ignored, and dismissed.

When experts run for the exits, public health doesn’t improve — it collapses.

Instead of stepping in early, Commissioner Makary let the turmoil grow.

Then he made things worse by elevating George Tidmarsh, who was later forced out after federal ethics officials began probing allegations that he abused his FDA position to settle a personal score.

This is not "public service."

This is the Washington, D.C. swamp at its absolute worst.

After Tidmarsh’s fall, Makary scrambled to fill the leadership vacuum at the drug center (CDER). He begged longtime FDA veteran Dr. Richard Pazdur to take the job.

When Pazdur said no, Makary's staff blasted out an agency-wide email practically pleading for volunteers.

That level of desperation should terrify anyone who cares about the integrity of the drug-approval process.

Pazdur ultimately accepted, but what he inherited is a hollowed-out agency: more than a thousand staff gone, bitter turf clashes with CBER, directives from Makary's office that outpace staffing capacity, and morale at historic lows.

His message to employees — urging unity, humility, and open doors — reads like a quiet indictment of the toxic culture created under current leadership.

Let's be blunt: America cannot afford an FDA run like a fumbling political campaign.

The agency approves cancer drugs, monitors food safety, regulates medical devices, and oversees biologics.

When leadership is consumed by infighting, corruption scandals, and coverups, every American becomes less safe.

From the MAHA perspective, the solution is clear:

End the infighting.

End the incompetence and lack of integrity.

End the bureaucratic rot. Return the FDA to its core mission: protecting the American people — not protecting Washington insiders.

MAHA stands for transparency in science, accountability in leadership, and honesty in public health.

The FDA needs all three.

If Commissioner Makary can't deliver stability, integrity, and competence, then he should step aside for someone who can.

America deserves a functional FDA, not a dysfunctional political circus.

When bureaucrats wage war against one another, the casualties are American families.

And MAHA will never accept that.

(A related story may be found here.) 

Charlie Kolean has worked as a senior policy adviser for state legislators, multinational corporations, and think tanks. Mr. Kolean has been involved in politics for over a decade as an activist, candidate, political consultant, and party leader. He was a bundler on the Trump Finance Victory Committee, and is a member of the American Association of Political Consultants. Read more Charlie Kolean Insider articles — Click Here Now.