Axed Vaccine Chief Reveals RFK Jr.’s Crackpot ‘Data’ Demands
Dr. Peter Marks, a top vaccine chief at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) who tendered his resignation last week, has revealed some of the demands made by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that made his position untenable.
Marks quit his job as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research last week after being told that if he did not resign, he would be fired. He had been in his post since 2016, and played a key role in overseeing the development and regulation of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal ahead of his last day in the role on Saturday, Marks revealed that Kennedy’s team sought nonexistent data that they could use to justify the anti-vaccine narratives Kennedy has become known for.
Marks told the paper, “I can never give allegiance to anyone else other than to follow the science as we see it. That does not mean that I can just roll over and take conspiracy theories and justify them.”
Since President Donald Trump’s appointment of Kennedy to the role of Secretary of Health and Human Services, thousands of department employees have been laid off as part of Trump and Elon Musk’s general governmental downsizing. In addition, Kennedy hired discredited anti-vaxxer David Geier as a senior data analyst so he can study the “link” between vaccines and autism—a link that has already been widely and thoroughly debunked by numerous other studies.
Marks described Kennedy’s tenure thus far as “very scary” and expressed concern about the decision to fire so many employees, telling the Journal, “They broke something without real plans to fix it, because the people who were doing the breaking didn’t have any idea.”
He continued, “They took the place apart without having an instruction manual of how to put it back together.”
Despite these concerns, Marks initially tried to work with Kennedy, proposing listening sessions on vaccines and making immunization information clearer for parents and doctors. This did not appear to be enough for Kennedy, however, whose team soon began requesting data that does not exist to legitimize Kennedy’s anti-vaccination beliefs.
After Kennedy’s team requested data on cases of brain swelling and death caused by the measles vaccine—data that does not exist, as there have been no such cases in the U.S.—Marks concluded “that there was not an appreciation for having somebody who was rigorously science-driven within the organization.”
In response, an HHS official said that Marks had no place at the FDA if he did “not want to get behind restoring science to its golden standard and promoting radical transparency.”
Marks also revealed that Kennedy is interested in weakening regulation around unproven stem-cell treatments, which he called “potentially dangerous,” adding, “These stem cells, if they are made improperly, they can harm people.”
People familiar with the matter told the Journal that Kennedy had long planned to remove Marks from his position, thanks at least in part to Marks’ lack of support among those in Trump and Kennedy’s inner circles, including numerous anti-vax groups Kennedy has worked with in the past who believe Marks rushed the authorizations of COVID-19 vaccines.
Del Bigtree, Kennedy’s former communications chief who is also CEO of the anti-vax Informed Consent Action Network, said of Marks, “He represents everything that is wrong with the regulatory agencies in our government.” Newly appointed FDA Commissioner Marty Makary also supported the decision to oust Marks.
In the week since Marks’ resignation, the FDA has already shown signs of implementing Kennedy’s agenda by missing a key deadline to approve a COVID-19 vaccination from Novavax. Marks told the Journal that had he not already resigned, he would have done so after that missed deadline. Referring to politically motivated appointees to the FDA, Marks said, “The politicals shouldn’t have been involved in this. There was no controversy. The review staff agreed it was an approval.”
