US vaccine chief jumps ship citing RFK ‘lies’: media

The highest US vaccine official resigned on Friday, citing the “misinformation and lies” he stated have been being peddled by the incoming well being secretary, experiences stated.

In response to each the New York Occasions and the Wall Avenue Journal, Dr. Peter Marks was pressured out of the Meals and Drug Administration’s vaccine division, as Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes cost.

Kennedy is a famous vaccine skeptic, whereas Marks has labored on the FDA since 2012 and was a part of the US effort to roll out inoculations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a resignation letter cited by the newspapers, Marks complained of an “unprecedented assault on scientific fact” being pushed by Kennedy and his supporters.

“It has turn out to be clear that fact and transparency will not be desired by the Secretary, however fairly he needs subservient affirmation of his misinformation and lies,” he stated.

Throughout President Donald Trump’s first time period, the US chief was happy with his administration’s “Venture Warp Pace” growth of vaccines to regulate unfold of coronavirus.

However when he got here to energy for a second time period in January, he appointed 71-year-old Kennedy, who has lengthy peddled unsupported theories that vaccines are ineffective or set off childhood illness.

Final 12 months 75 Nobel laureates urged the US Senate to oppose Kennedy’s nomination, however he was confirmed in February with just one member of the Republican majority voting in opposition to it.

In response to the WSJ, an HHS spokesman responded to Marks’ resignation by saying if he “doesn’t wish to get behind restoring science to its golden customary and selling radical transparency, then he has no place at FDA below the robust management of Secretary Kennedy.”

© 2025 AFP