USFDA top vaccine official Peter Marks forced out
Bengaluru: Peter Marks, the top vaccine official at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has been pushed out of his role, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A Health and Human Services official gave him the choice to resign or be fired, the report said, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Mark played a key role in U.S. President Donald Trump's first term in developing COVID-19 vaccines.
"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 in a resignation letter addressed to acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner, the WSJ reported.
Marks' resignation is effective April 5, according to the report.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach Marks for comment.
"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 (the) FDA under the strong leadership of Secretary Kennedy," an HHS official said, declining to be identified.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spread misinformation on vaccines, earlier this week announced plans to reshape federal public health agencies, including cutting 10,000 employees and centralizing some functions of the FDA, CDC and others under his purview.
The Trump administration and the U.S. FDA did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment outside business hours.
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