Trump nominates Martin Makary to head FDA

US President-elect Donald Trump has named Johns Hopkins surgical oncologist Marty Makary as his nominee for Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), confirming recent speculation that he was the frontrunner for the position.

This latest health associated nomination comes in the wake of Mr Trump’s recent choice earlier this month of the well-known vaccine sceptic Robert F Kennedy Jr to be the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services(HHS), which has come under considerable criticism and caused a crisis for vaccine developer. The FDA is part of the HHS Department.

For his part, Dr Makary has been a critic of how the US handled the pandemic response, although he describes himself as pro-vaccine. However, he did oppose broad vaccine mandates and criticized COVID vaccination policies for young adults and children.