The Disgraceful Campaign Against a Top FDA Official

Three months ago, Dr. Marty Makary, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, named Dr. Vinay Prasad to serve as the head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, a division that “regulates biological products for human use” and oversees their safety and effectiveness. In making the announcement on X, he described his new hire, a well-known oncologist, Substacker, and frequent critic of the public-health establishment, like this: “Dr. Prasad brings the kind of scientific rigor, independence, and transparency we need at CBER.”

We have long admired Prasad for precisely the reasons Makary cited, and have been proud to publish his pieces on such subjects as scientific fraud and the loss of trust in public health. One of his early policy decisions as the head of CBER was to end the unnecessary and divisive federal recommendation that young children be vaccinated against Covid-19. Dr. Prasad was an outspoken critic of government overreach during the pandemic, and with this act, it seemed possible that he could help restore the public’s lost faith in federal health institutions. 

Which is why we were so dismayed to read on Tuesday that he had abruptly left the agency. (You can read the backstory here, reported by our Gabe Kaminsky.)

Technically Prasad resigned, but it was under pressure from an ugly and unfounded smear campaign carried out by strange bedfellows, including Wall Street Journal editorial writer Allysia Finley, right-wing influencer Laura Loomer, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and, it would appear, by Sarepta Therapeutics, a company whose recently approved drug he had halted when two teenage patients and a young boy in Brazil died after taking it. 

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