President-elect Trump has tapped Johns Hopkins surgeon Martin “Marty” Makary, who made a name for himself by challenging status quo ideas in the medical establishment, to serve as the next commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
Trump announced the choice Truth Socialwhere he said Makary would guide the agency in tackling “harmful” chemicals and pharmaceuticals to combat chronic childhood diseases.
Makary will “restore the FDA to the Gold Standard of Scientific Research and cut red tape at the Agency to ensure Americans get the medical treatments and treatments they deserve,” Trump said in a statement.
Makary is a close ally of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick for secretary of Health and Human Services. Both positions require Senate confirmation. Makary and RFK Jr. are supporters of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, which aims to end chronic diseases by improving the nation’s food supply and eradicating healthcare corruption.
As leader of the FDA, Makary would be responsible for regulating food, drugs, medical devices and tobacco products. He would answer to RFK Jr., whose FDA agenda, based on his public statements, could include relaxing raw milk regulations, applying additional scrutiny to vaccine safety data, and pushing to eliminate user fees from drug and device manufacturers that help fund the agency. These user rates are determined by Congress.
RFK Jr. has a long history of anti-vaccine advocacy, including through a nonprofit he founded called Children’s Health Defense. He and other MAHA members have recently moved away from the more inflammatory anti-vaccine rhetoric, instead emphasizing their desire for more transparency and data surrounding the products. It is unclear exactly what data they are looking for.
“What is scary and dangerous for the health care system is not RFK Jr.,” Makary said Fox News on November 17. “It is the lie of the food pyramid that has existed for 60 years. It’s the medical establishment that lied to us for 20 years about opioids, saying they weren’t addictive. It is the vaccine mandates that ignore natural immunity.”
Makary, a pancreatic surgeon, has been a celebrity in the medical world for years. He rose to prominence in the early 2000s developing a simple routine before surgery to reduce surgical errors, called ‘The Surgery Checklist’. Public health expert Atul Gawande popularized the approach in his 2009 book, “The Checklist Manifesto.”
In addition to his role at Johns Hopkins, he is the Chief Medical Officer of the telehealth company Sesame and is a member of the board of directors of the ophthalmology company Harrow Health.
Makary has criticized and investigated various flaws in the U.S. health care system throughout his career, from investigating deaths caused by medical errors to calling out drug manufacturers for exploiting the FDA’s rare disease drug program. He is pushing for transparency in hospital prices and for many nonprofit hospitals to pay taxes.
Makary became a more controversial figure with the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic. In some respects he joined and supported traditional public health experts universal masking and the early doses of the Covid-19 vaccines. On the other handhe called the practice of mandatory masking for children “insulting,” opposed Covid vaccine mandates and questioned whether the potential risks to young people from Covid-19 shots, including myocarditis, outweighed the benefits of the mRNA vaccine.
In 2021, Makary criticized the FDA’s leadership for not approving drugs quickly enough during the pandemic. Fellow MAHA advocates have recently criticized the agency for being too lenient on pharmaceutical companies, with many pointing to the revolving door between the FDA and industry as evidence of corruption. It is unclear whether Makary will honor RFK Jr.’s promise. will comply to intimidate FDA officials who he sees as “part of this corrupt system.” It is also unclear how RFK Jr.’s vaccine skepticism. Makary’s approach to these products would influence.
As a physician and healthcare researcher, Makary may have an easier path to confirmation compared to other MAHA members who were considered for the job. But both he and RFK Jr. will have to win over the moderate Republicans, many of whom stayed mum about how they will vote. The confirmation process for HHS and FDA leaders has looked more like a battle in recent years, with only 50 senators voting for Biden. HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and for FDA Commissioner Robert Califf.