By Ahmed Aboulenein and Michael Erman
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Martin Makary, President Donald Trump’s nominee to run the U.S. FDA, told lawmakers on Thursday he would convene a committee of vaccine advisers but said he would reevaluate which scientific issues require their input.
It was one of several issues on which Makary, a Johns Hopkins physician, kept his cards close to his chest while facing the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee for two hours.
Makary steered clear of concrete commitments while largely hewing to the Trump administration’s positions on vaccines, abortion pills, and staff reductions.
He repeatedly distanced himself from decisions taken under Trump’s watch or that of his likely new boss, Health Secretary Robert F.
Kennedy Jr., yet praised and thanked both repeatedly. Makary is expected to be confirmed in the role.
He said he was not involved in last week’s decision to cancel a meeting on the composition of the next seasonal flu vaccine, but did not commit to rescheduling it, offering only that the committee would continue to meet if he were confirmed.
Makary is set to take over a Food and Drug Administration already embroiled in controversy over the mass firing of federal employees and a widening measles outbreak in Texas.
Kennedy has a decades-long history of questioning the safety of vaccines.
His response to the measles outbreak, which lacked a strong recommendation to get vaccinated, has been questioned including by some senators on the health committee.
Makary during the COVID-19 pandemic had raised concerns about a number of public health efforts, touting the protection received from natural immunity and opposing vaccine mandates for the general public.
Despite his contrarian positions on other topics in the past, those familiar with his work say he believes in the benefit of vaccination.
“I would in no way consider him to be an anti-vaxxer,” said Dr.
Cody Meissner, professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth, who has corresponded with Makary and co-wrote an editorial with him against masks for children during the COVID pandemic.
Makary told lawmakers on Thursday that any child dying from a vaccine-preventable illness is a tragedy.
ABORTION PILL
Republicans largely showed support in their questions, pressing him only, but repeatedly, on abortion pill mifepristone, widely used in medical abortions and currently under assault by Republican-controlled states.
He pledged to take a “solid, hard look” at data the FDA collects through its risk mitigation program on the drug that was approved nearly 25 years ago, but would not commit to reversing the FDA’s relaxation in restrictions over its sale enacted under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden.
Kennedy had said during his own confirmation hearings that he wanted an FDA review of data on mifepristone, which is now sold in pharmacies and by mail and is used for almost 60% of abortions in the United States.
Democrats also pressed Makary on the pill, but failed to secure a promise that he would not restrict its sale.
Makary is likely to face pressure to further reduce head count after hundreds of jobs were cut last month in Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to slash the size of the federal government.
Many were quickly rescinded.
Democrats asked him repeatedly about the firings. Makary said he was not involved in those decisions and would review all the recent job cuts, but did not express overt opposition.
“I welcome input on efficiencies at the agency,” he said.
“At the same time, I want to make sure that the scientists and food inspectors and staff central to the core mission of the agency have all the resources they need to do their job well.”
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington and Michael Erman in New York; editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot)
