Trump taps a Fox News personality, a surgeon and a former Congressman to lead public health agencies
President-elect Donald Trump has nominated a critic of COVID-19 health measures to lead the Food and Drug Administration
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday nominated Dr. Marty Makary to lead the Food and Drug Administration, selecting a surgeon and author who gained national attention for opposing vaccine mandates and some other public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Makary, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, is the latest in a string of Trump nominees who have declared the U.S. health system “broken," vowing a shakeup. As part of a flurry of nominations late Friday night, Trump also tapped doctor and former Republican Rep. Dave Weldon of Florida to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fox News contributor Janette Nesheiwat, meanwhile, is set to be the nation's next surgeon general.
Some of Makary's views align closely with the man who is poised to be his boss — prominent environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump put forward as the next U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary.
In books and articles, Makary has decried the overprescribing of drugs, the use of pesticides on foods and the undue influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies over doctors and government regulators, points that Kennedy has also harped on for years.
Trump said Makary, trained as a surgeon and cancer specialist, “will restore FDA to the gold standard of scientific research, and cut the bureaucratic red tape at the agency to make sure Americans get the medical cures and treatments they deserve.”
Headquartered in the Maryland suburbs outside Washington, the 18,000 employees of the FDA are responsible for the safety and effectiveness
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