FDA's top vaccine official forced out, decries RFK Jr.'s "misinformation and lies"
Dr. Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration's top vaccine official, was forced to resign Friday, multiple people familiar with the matter told CBS News.
An official with the Department of Health and Human Services delivered an ultimatum to Marks on behalf of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: either resign or be fired from his position as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, sources said.
"It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies," Marks wrote of Kennedy in his letter to acting FDA commissioner Sara Brenner. Marks said his resignation would be effective April 5.
"If Peter Marks does not want to get behind restoring science to its golden standard and promoting radical transparency, then he has no place at FDA under the strong leadership of Secretary Kennedy," an HHS official said in a statement.
In the resignation letter obtained by CBS News, Marks wrote: "My hope is that during the coming years, the unprecedented assault on scientific truth that has adversely impacted public health in our nation comes to an end so that the citizens of our country can fully benefit from the breadth of advances in medical science.
For months, Marks has said he was open to working to address Kennedy's concerns about vaccine safety and transparency.
In the letter, Marks noted that he "had been willing" to host public meetings and work with an outside group, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, to address Kennedy's concerns "regarding vaccine safety and transparency."
FDA's top vaccine official forced out, decries RFK Jr.'s "misinformation and lies" by CBSNews.com on Scribd
In an event earlier this month, Marks said it was "up to people much smarter than me about how we're going to end up communicating through some layers that would seem to not want to accept that vaccination is the public health triumph that it is."
"I won't say more about that because I'd like to keep coming – I'd like to be able to come back to this desk tomorrow morning," he said at a webinar, hosted by the Margolis Institute for Health Policy.
The demand for Marks to resign comes as the FDA is bracing for steep cuts at the agency, part of an HHS restructuring order by Kennedy that seeks to slash 20,000 positions.
Officials at the federal office overseeing the National Vaccine Program were told Friday that they were expected to be cut, as part of the changes.
It also comes ahead of Dr. Marty Makary's expected arrival at the agency as its new commissioner. While the Senate confirmed Makary days ago to the post, agency officials said they have heard nothing from Makary.
Agency-wide communications this week have only come from Brenner, who has continued to sign her emails as the FDA's acting commissioner.
The resignation by Marks caps a decades-long and sometimes controversial tenure at the agency as its top official on biologics products, which include vaccines as well as other treatments like cell and gene based therapies, and blood donations.
Marks has faced criticism for his role in several decisions overruling his staff and outside advisers, like in the approval of the Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm or greenlighting COVID-19 vaccine boosters.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, federal officials credited Marks for creating the Operation Warp Speed effort that accelerated the development of COVID-19 vaccines under President Trump's first term.
"He is Operation Warp Speed. Lots of people take credit inappropriately and overstate their contributions," one current senior federal health official said.
"It was Peter's vision that made that work possible," the official added.
