Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Martin Makary announced Tuesday that Dr. Vinay Prasad, a longtime critic of the agency’s quick approval for Covid-19 vaccine boosters during the pandemic, to oversee the agency’s vaccine approval process.
"Dr. Prasad brings the kind of scientific rigor, independence, and transparency we need at [Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research] CBER — a significant step forward," Makary wrote on social media.
Prasad, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California at San Francisco, was a vocal critic of his predecessor, Dr. Peter Marks, who oversaw Operation Warp Speed that quickened approval for Covid-19 vaccines at the start of the pandemic. Prasad said that Marks was "either incompetent or corrupt to authorize a booster without clinical, randomized data."
Last week, Prasad suggested blocking new Covid-19 vaccines until new randomized clinical trials are conducted.
"Without trials, it is only a matter of time before the FDA approves a vaccine that causes some bad outcome like vaccine-induced narcolepsy. If this happens, you can kiss faith in vaccines goodbye. You will see vaccine hesitancy like you have never seen before," he wrote.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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