Maryland scholars on Monday alternately described President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — , a Johns Hopkins researcher, surgeon and author — as a “courageous leader” and a “reasonable choice,” who nevertheless espouses some “worrisome” views.
Makary, who did not respond to requests for comment, currently serves as head of Islet Transplant Surgery at Hopkins. He also works as a public policy researcher and is the author of two New York Times-bestselling books entitled “Unaccountable” and “The Price We Pay,” which cover topics related to transparency and high costs in American health care. He previously made headlines after opposing some pandemic lockdown measures and COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
He also publicly criticized the FDA for what he saw as a slow rollout of coronavirus therapies, done to hamper Trump’s first presidency. His selection to run the FDA was announced over the weekend. Jerome Adams, the Maryland-born physician who during Trump’s first term, said in and emailed statement that while he had reservations about Makary’s “ability to oversee and navigate such a big agency given what seems like a lack of experience running large organizations,” overall, Makary “is a reasonable choice, and perhaps the least controversial of the new administration’s health picks so far.
” Baltimore-born pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine advocate known for co-inventing a vaccine that immunizes ag.
