Posted on 08/05/2025 8:21:06 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's top vaccine official, Vinay Prasad, has left the agency after just three months as Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, a government spokesperson said.
Prasad, an oncologist who was a fierce critic of U.S. COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates, had been appointed in May by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. Together they had promised to speed regulatory action and pilot new review pathways.
In recent days, criticism of Prasad's tenure has intensified around the agency's handling of a gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy from Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT.O), opens new tab.
The FDA-approved therapy played a role in the death of two teens who had advanced disease, and after a third death in a separate experimental gene therapy from the company, the FDA on July 18 asked Sarepta to stop all shipments of the approved DMD therapy, saying it had safety concerns.
Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and President Donald Trump ally, on July 20 posted a blog in which she called Prasad a "progressive leftist saboteur" who was undermining the agency's work. Loomer critiques earlier this year led to the ouster of national security officials.
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal's opinion section ran two pieces criticizing Prasad, one of which called him a Bernie Sanders acolyte in MAHA drag, referring to the Trump administration's "Make America Healthy Again" movement. Both said he was not basing regulatory decisions on whether drugs helped patients, but on price.
"When he saw some of these sort of smear pieces, he didn't want to be a distraction," Makary said of Prasad's departure in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Looser and others like her are be8ng given too much credit in the Trump administration. Trump should not be jumping every time they say jump. He looks weak, like he cannot think for himself.
Is Loomer the shadow chief of staff now? She seems to be making a lot of staffing decisions. WHat a joke. Prasad was an amazing voice of reason during covid.
How does this woman have such influence over Trump?
For starters, Prasad resigned, he wasn't fired.
About the specifcs of the controversy which you didn't address at all, the claim is that Prasad was against Trump's Right To Try Act and he was critical of Trump for it.
Sarepta Therapeutics' gene therapy, Elevidys, for Duchenne muscular dystrophy was at the center of this controversy.
Prasad didn't want DMD sufferers to have a right to try it. Prasad wanted the Big Government FDA to make the decisions for DMD sufferers.
Laura Loomer simply reported all of this and she gets trashed for it.
Add to that, Trump makes his own decisions, not Laura Loomer.
No, sorry. He was part of the whole “Covid” psyop, keeping the more skeptical in the fold with the idea that there really was a novel killer virus out there. That fiction is what is keeping far too many Americans on the “well, there could be another pandemic, so we need medical authoritarianism” plantation instead of awake to the couple of million of Americans killed by the deadly protocols and jabs.
“Prasad didn’t want DMD sufferers to have a right to try it. Prasad wanted the Big Government FDA to make the decisions for DMD sufferers. “
Given his stance on the Covid issues, I hesitate to accept that Prasad “wanting the big government FDA to make decisions for DMD sufferers”. Every drug needing FDA approval can find medical scientists in favor of it and honest medical scientists not in favor of it, but the FDA (the “big government”) has to make its decisions, whether or not the decision is favored by everyone. To suggest Prasad’s motives to be that he simply favors big government is a simplistic insinuation that does not fit his reputation.
Perhaps if you were in need of an experimental drug to have a chance to live, you would understand the need for a more patient-centered and not government-centered approach at the FDA.
Prasad, being a medical scientist and not a particular drug advocate or drug opponent, thinks the right to try laws do not have sufficient guard rails against medical scams that deliver “hope” and hype more than results. He opposed the Covid vaccine mandates on a similar basis. And, at the end of the day, philosophically, how far away from each other are “right to try” laws and “right to commit suicide” laws. Are not both really forms of request asking the government to step aside and let patients decide medical situations that are otherwise normally regulated?
On the other hand, I think the FDA power altogether should be reduced to legally no greater power than that offered by “Consumer Reports” - an expert recommendation, that anyone, any doctor, any insurance company can accept or reject.
That is regardless of what some think is Prasad’s motives; because when you look at his opposition to the Covid vaccines and what he thinks about some experimental drugs, “big government” is not his motive, and his experience driven scientific medical skepticism is front and center in both situations.
Was he vaxxed?
Vaxxed: based on my memory I believe both he and Marty Makary (who is Trump’s appointed head of the FDA) did get the shots. However: both were adamant that mandates for younger, healthy people without pre-existing conditions were unnecessary. But as medical professionals, they did…
Makary pointed out the wisdom of spreading out the Pfizer/Moderna shots by more than three weeks for better safety and longer term efficacy. And he turned out to be right.
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