Oncologist Vinay Prasad, a divisive critic of COVID-19 responses, will be the next top vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration, agency Commissioner Martin Makary announced on social media Tuesday.
Prasad will head the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), which is in charge of approving and regulating vaccines and other biologics products, such as gene therapies and blood products.
“Dr. Prasad brings the kind of scientific rigor, independence, and transparency we need at CBER—a significant step forward,” Makary wrote on social media.
Prasad, a professor in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, is perhaps best known for his combative social media postings and criticism of the mainstream medical community. He gained notoriety amid the COVID-19 pandemic for assailing public health responses, such as masking and vaccine mandates.
In an October 2021 newsletter, titled “How Democracy Ends,” Prasad compared the country’s pandemic responses to the rise of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. The post led New York University bioethicist Arthur Caplan to rebuke Prasad, writing in The Cancer Letter that the comparison is “ludicrous, dangerous, and offensive,” before adding “imbecilic.”
Prasad has also criticized the FDA for approving COVID-19 booster vaccines. Last year, he accused his predecessor as the head of the CBER, Peter Marks, of being “either incompetent or corrupt” for allowing the approvals.
“Absurd”
More recently, Prasad has heaped praise on new FDA Commissioner Makary, while continuing to criticize Marks. In early March, Prasad called Makary “smart, thoughtful, and disciplined” and “exactly what we need at the FDA.” Later in the month, he continued to take shots at Marks, writing: “You could replace Peter Marks with a bobblehead doll that just stamps approval and you would have the same outcome at FDA with lower administrative fees. Maybe something DOGE should consider.”