President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Johns Hopkins surgical oncologist Dr. Martin Makary to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Pending confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Makary would oversee the federal agency responsible for ensuring that the nation’s drugs, medical devices, food, cosmetics, and tobacco are safe, effective, and secure.
Johns Hopkins Medicine officials applauded Makary’s appointment to be the next commissioner of the FDA, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“Dr. Makary’s extensive work as a surgeon and public policy researcher demonstrates his professional commitment and leadership in the medical field,” Johns Hopkins Medicine said in a statement. “We congratulate him on his nomination and the opportunity to work with the exceptional team at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as the agency’s next commissioner.”
Makary is the chief of Islet Transplant Surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He serves as a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, and he has been a visiting professor at more than 25 medical schools.
Makary has written for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal and has published more than 250 peer-reviewed scientific articles. He is also the author of three books: “Unaccountable”; “The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care—and How to Fix It,” which the Association of Business Journalists awarded for being the 2020 Business Book of the Year; and “Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets it Wrong and What it Means for our Health.”
Early on in the COVID-19 pandemic, Makary was among the health officials who called for shutdowns, masking, and a pause of non-essential travel to reduce the virus’s spread.
But later, he was critical of certain restrictions, such as Los Angeles County officials’ guidance that fully vaccinated residents should wear masks to stop the delta variant from spreading. He said that recommendation “is not just excessive; it also undermines vaccination efforts and perpetuates fearmongering.”
COVID-19 vaccinations have been proven effective to reduce infection rates, particularly those resulting in severe illness and death. However, like all vaccines, they do not provide total protection or immunity.
While Makary acknowledges long COVID is real, he also claims public health officials have “massively exaggerated” it.
In addition to COVID-19, Makary has written about a plethora of other medical topics and issues.
He has advocated for banning students from using smartphones in schools due to their impact on health and learning – a tactic that some Maryland schools have already adopted.
Makary also criticized how patients can face much higher medical bills in a hospital compared to if they were to receive the same treatment or procedure in a non-hospital setting.
He has called for new leadership at the FDA, an agency that he said is “mired in politics and red tape.”
