President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Food and Drug Administration is set to face the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday morning, and he’s likely to receive a flurry of questions ranging from recent firings at the agency to how he will advance Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
Martin Makary, an author and surgeon at Johns Hopkins University, has appeared frequently on Fox News to discuss everything from the response to the COVID-19 pandemic to whether former President Joe Biden was aging too quickly to do his job.
In the months leading up to the 2024 election, Makary defended Kennedy’s stances on vaccines, chronic disease and food policy.
But there are a few areas where their backgrounds diverge, and some see Makary as a more “thoughtful” alternative to Kennedy.
Makary’s nomination was met with speculation that he would be less likely to ruffle feathers on Capitol Hill and in the public health sphere than Kennedy, who has voiced controversial views on a number of FDA-regulated products like vaccines and raw milk.
Makary earned the endorsement of Leana S. Wen, a prominent physician and former head of Planned Parenthood, who wrote in a Washington Post opinion column in December that she was hopeful he could be a connector between Trump supporters and public health advocates.
“[P]ublic health advocates would do well to look for areas of agreement with the MAHA movement and start developing alliances with thoughtful Trump acolytes such as Makary,” she wrote.
If confirmed, Makary would take the helm of an agency in the midst of significant turmoil and among those hit by cuts by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“If Makary is confirmed, job number one is going to be to stop the bleeding of staff with the scientific expertise to keep our food and drugs safe, and to resist an additional round of cuts the administration has asked agencies to propose later this month,” Peter Lurie, the president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, wrote in a statement.
Lurie also argued that sweeping cuts to the agency will make it harder to achieve Kennedy’s goal to crack down on food additives.
Among the challenges: During the final month of the Biden administration, the FDA proposed a front-of-package food labeling rule. The proposed rule would have required certain food manufacturers to list the amount of saturated fat, sodium and added sugar on the front of their products’ label.
But the administration put a halt to the rulemaking practice under its federal regulatory freeze issued just after Trump took office.
Vaccines
Makary criticized the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly on vaccine policy, and was skeptical of the need for COVID-19 boosters in children, emphasizing the role that herd immunity plays in protecting against transmission.
But Makary does not appear to have publicly suggested that vaccines are linked with autism, which Kennedy has said in the past.
Speaking on Fox News in November, Makary urged people to focus on recent comments Kennedy made asserting that he doesn’t plan to take vaccines away.
“People should not dissect what he said 30 years ago and listen to what he’s saying now,” Makary said on Nov. 17. “He’s saying very clearly he’s not anti-vax, he’s not going to remove or take away anyone’s vaccines.”
But the landscape now could be different.
The FDA earlier this month canceled a meeting planned internally to select which flu strain to target for the fall and winter vaccine rollout. The decision spurred concern from FDA watchers worried that the decision sets a precedent for a lack of transparency from the agency.
But the FDA said it would still provide a recommendation to manufacturers with ample time for them to create enough vaccine.
Obesity medication
Speaking on the Will Cain Show podcast in September, Makary took a relatively neutral stance on the topic of GLP-1s, the new class of diabetes and obesity drugs. He cautioned that taking GLP-1s reduces body fat, but also reduces muscle mass which he said is the No. 1 predictor of longevity.
“Ozempic is mimicking a hormone that normally is in the body,” he said. “We can make it sound like it’s very dangerous, but the bottom line is it’s been around for a long time in its natural form.”
Still, Makary has appeared skeptical about giving GLP-1s to kids. He has repeatedly suggested treating diabetes with cooking classes instead of just insulin.
“The bigger question is, is this the road we should be going down as a society, just medicating all of our problems?” he told Cain.
Makary previously was the chief medical officer of the digital health company Sesame, which sells compounded GLP-1s. Makary said in his ethics disclosure that he resigned from his position at the company in December.
Kennedy has taken a stronger stance against the drugs, though he’s indicated that some people benefit from them.
Speaking to ABC News in December, Kennedy said that he believes the first line of defense against obesity should be diet and lifestyle and that GLP-1s “have a place.”
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