Top vaccine official out at US public health agency

In his resignation letter, Peter Marks cited ‘misinformation and lies’ from Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr.

Dr Peter Marks. Picture: POOL/Reuters

The Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official has been pushed out, according to people familiar with the matter.

Dr Peter Marks, who played a key role in the first Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed to develop Covid-19 vaccines, stepped down Friday. A Health and Human Services official gave him the choice Friday morning to resign or be fired, a person familiar with the matter said.

“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,” he wrote in a resignation letter referring to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The letter was addressed to acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner. His resignation takes effect April 5, the letter said.

“If Peter Marks does not want to get behind restoring science to its golden standard and promoting radical transparency, then he has no place at FDA under the strong leadership of Secretary Kennedy,” an HHS spokesman said.

Marks, who had been with the FDA since 2012, had overseen its division responsible for overseeing vaccines, biotech drugs and blood products since 2016. Part of the division’s role was making sure vaccines worked and were safe.

During the pandemic, he was a member of the team that streamlined regulations and pooled government funding to speed development of Covid-19 vaccines.

He had hoped to stay in his position, though his support of immunisation conflicted with Kennedy’s scepticism, people familiar said.

Marks offered to work with Kennedy on holding a series of public meetings on vaccines with the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, and he sent a memo to Kennedy proposing listening sessions on immunisation, one of the people said.

“My hope is that during the coming years, the unprecedented assault on scientific truth that has adversely impacted public health in our nation comes to an end,” he wrote in the letter.

– Dow Jones Newswires