Topline
Years after helping drive the first Trump administration’s efforts to develop a Covid vaccine, Dr. Peter Marks resigned as the Food and Drug Administration’s leading official overseeing vaccines, citing his likely ouster while criticizing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s views on vaccines and “misinformation and lies.”
Marks offered his resignation while citing Kennedy’s “misinformation and lies” and an “unprecedented … More
Key Facts
Marks, in a letter to Sara Brenner, the FDA’s acting commissioner of food and drugs, said he would step down from his role as the director of the agency’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research on April 5, according to multiple outlets that obtained the letter.
Before working at the FDA, Marks served as the clinical director of hematology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston after receiving his graduate degree in cell and molecular biology and a medical degree from New York University.
He worked for Yale University and served as chief clinical officer at the college’s nearby Smilow Cancer Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, before joining the FDA in 2012 as CBER’s deputy director.
Marks was named CBER’s director in January 2016 and later played a role overseeing the first Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed,” a roughly $18 billion effort to ramp up development of a Covid vaccine in 2020.
Scott Gottlieb, who served as FDA commissioner at the time, applauded Marks’ work in regulating gene therapy in a statement to the Washington Post, adding Marks had “presided over an extraordinary period of medical progress” while “spearheading breakthroughs” in cell and gene therapy.
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What Other Fda Officials Have Resigned?
Marks is the third top official to leave the FDA this year. Patrizia Cavazzoni, the FDA’s drug chief, resigned in early January and said her family had taken a “backseat” while she worked. The FDA’s human foods chief, Jim Jones, resigned in February while citing the Trump administration’s “indiscriminate” firings at the agency.
Crucial Quote
“If [Marks] does not want to get behind restoring science to its gold standard and promoting radical transparency, then he has no place at FDA under the strong leadership of Secretary Kennedy,” an HHS official told the Wall Street Journal (the HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment).
What Did Dr. Peter Marks Say About Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?
In his resignation letter, first obtained by the Journal, Marks said an HHS official forced him to choose between being fired or resigning. Marks wrote it had become “clear that truth and transparency are not desired” by Kennedy, who “wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies.” Marks, who noted he was previously willing to address Kennedy’s concerns about vaccine safety and transparency from the agency, said some claims about vaccines—including a debunked connection with autism—are “concerning.” A recent outbreak of measles in several states underscores lowered confidence in “well-established vaccines” that have met the FDA’s standards for quality and safety, which could be “detrimental to public health and a clear danger to our nation’s health, safety and security,” Marks said.
What Has Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Said About Vaccines?
Kennedy has previously made false claims that vaccines cause autism and chaired the Children’s Health Defense, a health organization that is often a source of vaccine misinformation. He has apologized for comparing vaccine mandates to the Holocaust, and Kennedy was banned by YouTube and Instagram for spreading misinformation about the Covid vaccine. During his Senate confirmation hearing in January, Kennedy said he was not “anti-vaccine or anti-industry” and rather “pro-safety.” Kennedy previously said he believed “there’s no vaccine that is … safe and effective,” though he later walked back that comment, calling it a “bad use of words.”
What To Watch For
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reportedly planning to study potential connections between vaccines and autism. The CDC’s page about autism—last updated on Nov. 5, 2024—says, “to date, the studies continue to show that vaccines are not associated with” autism spectrum disorder. Other studies have also found no connection between vaccination and autism.
Further Reading
FDA’s Top Vaccine Official Forced Out (Wall Street Journal)
Here’s What An RFK Jr. Health Role In a Trump Administration Could Look Like: Vaccine Skepticism, Fluoride Ban (Forbes)
