The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is forcing out one of its best scientists, who is an expert on vaccines, and who helped make the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed a success. On Friday, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
pushed out Peter Marks, the nation’s top vaccine regulator and an architect of the U.S. program to rapidly develop coronavirus vaccines, a move that comes as Kennedy continues his overhaul of the nation’s health and science agencies amid a worsening U.S. outbreak of measles. Marks…was offered the choice to resign or be fired…
Two former FDA commissioners praised Marks on Friday night, highlighting his work at the agency. Marks helped conceive of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s program to accelerate the development of coronavirus vaccines, which has been credited with helping end the threat of the covid-19 pandemic. A December 2022 study by the Commonwealth Fund, a health-care foundation, estimated that coronavirus vaccines prevented more than 18.5 million U.S. hospitalizations and 3.2 million deaths.
As head of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Marks led a team of experts who were charged with scrutinizing data on vaccines and other medical products before deciding whether to approve them.
“Peter has presided over an extraordinary period of medical progress, spearheading breakthroughs in cell and gene therapy that helped transform the treatment of pediatric leukemia, sickle cell disease, and certain forms of blindness,” said Scott Gottlieb, who served as FDA commissioner during the first Trump administration.
“Peter’s commitment to bringing the best science and data to the development and availability of lifesaving biomedical technologies, from gene and cell therapies to the Trump Administration’s Operation Warp Speed, has saved countless lives,” said Mark McClellan, who served as FDA commissioner during the George W. Bush administration….
In his resignation letter, Marks also said that he had been willing to work with Kennedy on the health secretary’s planned efforts to review vaccine safety. Kennedy has repeatedly suggested that there could be a link between vaccines and autism — a claim that has been repeatedly debunked — and called for further study.
“However, it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” Marks wrote.
It should be noted that although the coronavirus vaccine prevented millions of deaths worldwide in 2021-22, it was never as effective as Joe Biden claimed, and it was more effective against earlier strains of the disease than later strains. (Later strains of the coronavirus have been milder anyway. For really mild strains of COVID, it may not be worth the bother of getting vaccinated, especially given the side effects, and the fact that most Americans have already had COVID and thus enjoy a degree of natural immunity. Few young people ever died from COVID-19, and the young people who died were overwhelmingly obese. Some COVID-19 booster shots may be worse than worthless for some people.).
Joe Biden falsely claimed that people vaccinated for COVID-19 “do not spread the disease to anyone else,” even though vaccinated people who get the disease can spread it, according to PolitiFact. Biden also exaggerated by saying “You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations,” but getting vaccinated merely reduced the risk of getting infected, it didn’t eliminate the risk of getting infected, noted the Associated Press.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was appointed HHS Secretary in exchange for endorsing Trump in the 2024 election, even though Kennedy previously had a record of left-wing positions like supporting reparations. As Center Square reports, Kennedy, a “lifelong Democrat, became an Independent during his presidential campaign and then endorsed Trump, helping propel Trump to victory.” After Kennedy endorsed Trump, Kennedy removed his name from the ballot in various states, and his supporters then voted mostly for Trump.
Back in 2019, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. helped fuel a “deadly measles outbreak that occurred in Samoa” and “claimed the lives of 83 people, mostly children.” He did that by spreading “misinformation that contributed to the decline in measles vaccination that preceded the lethal eruption.”
The measles vaccine is more effective than the coronavirus vaccine. “Measles vaccination has saved 94 million lives globally since 1974. Of those, 92 million were children,” reports Our World in Data. Of the lives saved by vaccination, around 60% are saved by the measles vaccine. Globally, vaccination against measles has risen from under 20% in 2000 to more than 70% today.
