Trump drove firing of FDA official
The criticism of Prasad's Elevidys decision added to Loomer's line of attacks. She called attention to his 2021 social media posts in which he called himself 'a political liberal' aligned with Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Loomer also linked on July 20 to his 2020 X post expressing support for then-candidate Joe Biden to win the presidential election that November.
'Prasad's policy positions are a direct affront to the conservative principles underpinning Trump's agenda,' Loomer wrote, listing his support for universal health care and abortion rights.
On July 28, Loomer posted a story quoting interviews in which Prasad expressed disdain for Trump, including an apparent joke about stabbing a voodoo doll of the president to 'curse' him .
Loomer could not be reached for comment on Prasad's departure.
Makary on Wednesday announced Dr. George Tidmarsh would take over as acting director of the FDA's biologics center — but more substantial changes could be on the horizon.
The Trump administration is weighing splitting the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research into two bodies: one focused on vaccine regulation and one on therapeutics, according to three of the people familiar with the discussions.
That could allow Kennedy to respond to anti-vaccine groups like Children's Health Defense, which has expressed concern he has not been as aggressive toward immunizations as they hoped. Under Prasad, the FDA approved Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine for kids aged 6 months through 11 years at increased risk for Covid-19. Prasad was also instrumental in developing the FDA's framework for approval of future Covid-19 booster shots.
'What matters is that a highly qualified scientist and public health expert quickly steps into this essential role at the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research,' Mary Holland, CHD's president and CEO, said in a statement to POLITICO about Prasad's exit.
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Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is targeting a little-known but crucial program that underpins all childhood vaccinations. Kennedy took to social media and the show of conservative activist Charlie Kirk this week to rail against the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and pledge significant changes. 'The VICP is broken, and I intend to fix it,' he wrote on social platform X. 'I will not allow the VICP to continue to ignore its mandate and fail its mission of quickly and fairly compensating vaccine-injured individuals.' Attorneys and other experts say Kennedy is right that the program, which was created in 1986 in order to give quick payouts to families who can prove a child was injured from a vaccine, is badly in need of modernization. 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He has previously said he wants to expand the program, making it easier for claimants to qualify for awards based on adverse events he claims are associated with vaccines but are not currently part of the program. People can prove injuries two ways, said Dorit Reiss, a vaccine law expert and law professor at UC San Francisco. Either you fit into the table of injuries, and then there's a presumption that the vaccine caused the harm, or you have to show causation for an injury outside the list. Kennedy has the power to add new injuries to the eligible list, like autism, which he has repeatedly linked to vaccines. In an interview with Tucker Carlson earlier in July, Kennedy also suggested vaccines are linked to numerous chronic ailments like diabetes and narcolepsy. 'We have now this epidemic of immune dysregulation in our country, and there's no way to rule out vaccines as one of the key culprits,' Kennedy said. In order to add an injury to the list, Kennedy would have to go through the federal government's cumbersome notice-and-comment rulemaking process. Experts said it's usually a time consuming and expensive undertaking, and often the scientific reviews don't show enough evidence to prove if the vaccine caused harm or not. Kennedy could also unofficially start settling cases for more injuries without adding them to the list. Yet either change could risk bankrupting the program. Families are paid through a trust fund that's funded by an excise tax on vaccine makers, so there's a finite pot of money available. The program's fund covers lawyers' fees and the costs, even for losing cases. In exchange for the tax, vaccine makers have a limited liability shield. Petitioners file claims against the federal government, not the manufacturers, and families can get compensation without having to prove that drugmakers were negligent. Kennedy has suggested he wants to change that. 'The VICP has devolved into a morass of inefficiency, favoritism, and outright corruption as government lawyers and the Special Masters who serve as Vaccine Court judges prioritize the solvency of the HHS Trust Fund, over their duty to compensate victims,' Kennedy wrote. An HHS spokesman declined to say what, if any changes Kennedy is considering, saying the secretary's comments speak for itself. A popular anti-vaccine talking point is the desire to eliminate the vaccine makers' limited liability shield. But that's only something Congress can do. Kennedy does have the power to drop vaccines from the program. Right now, it covers 16 routinely recommended immunizations for children or pregnant women. But if a shot is no longer routinely recommended, it can be removed. In early June, Kennedy abruptly fired all members of the outside advisory group responsible for making vaccine recommendations. He appointed a new group of hand-picked replacements. If that group no longer recommends the HPV vaccine, for instance, Kennedy can revise the injury table to remove it. 'If he takes it away, then those people have no right to be in this program, and they're going to have to be stuck with civil litigation,' said Gentry, which is much more difficult and expensive.
