I check the Washington Post every day for work purposes (though I do so through a website that bypasses their paywall because screw the left-wing media) because, while the paper is marinated in left-wing bias, they generally get the basic facts correct as far as the “who, what, where and when” of a story. And while they cover the unintentionally absurd more often than is likely healthy, sometimes they have stories that make you wonder what the hell is happening with our own side.
One great example of a “what the hell is happening here” story run just the other day that opened with, “Orange juice, known for its tangy, sweet taste, could be made with slightly less sugary oranges under a regulation proposed Tuesday by the Trump administration.”
Orange juice is an issue now? Sure, if it’s all you drink, I can see it being a problem, but beyond that I would like to think the Food and Drug Administration has better things to do than police OJ. Apparently not.
Don’t get me wrong, the FDA is doing a lot of good things – more natural ingredients in our food over cheaper chemicals mixed together to taste like natural flavors is a good thing – but it’s also burning a lot of calories that would be better burnt elsewhere.
There have been problems at the FDA since the start of the administration. When President Trump appointed Dr. Mark Makary to run the agency, hopes were high for major advances in health and safety. Then he hired Vinay Prasad for, well, a couple of very important jobs.
Prasad, who just made news for being fired (or pressured to resign, depending on who you believe) by the President, served as Director, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research and Chief Medical and Scientific Officer. That did not go well, as the Wall Street Journal editorial board put it, he was “resigning because he doesn’t want to “be a distraction.” The truth is that he was under heavy criticism from patients and these pages for undermining the Administration’s goal of fast-tracking life-saving treatments."
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Why Makary would hire someone the Journal described as having “long criticized the FDA from the left” is a mystery, until you realize they’ve been friends for a long time. But friendship only goes so far, and it should have absolutely zero to do with personnel decisions. Actually, government officials should be barred from hiring friends.
Prasad’s tenure at the FDA is seen as a time when “the FDA has torpedoed several promising treatments for rare and deadly diseases. This includes an immunotherapy shot that helped a third of advanced melanoma patients who had relapsed after other treatments. With these disapprovals, the agency moved its standards for drug approvals and blind-sided companies.”
Not a great loss for the American people that he’s gone, right? You’d think so, but that realization is not universal.
Bloomberg reported the other day that “Makary told reporters Monday that media reports suggesting that Prasad was fired after intervention from the White House are “simply untrue.” He “didn’t want to be a distraction.” More than that, “Makary said he’s trying to persuade Vinay Prasad, the agency’s former head of gene therapy and vaccines, to return to the FDA after his abrupt departure last week.”
The obstructions Prasad put in place for innovations and the “right to try” have been removed, as one of therapies he’d blocked is now shipping again. Why would Makary want to go back?
It’s likely friendship, but honest I do not care. It’s not often you get a do-over in life, you should never use a do-over to make the same mistake again. Former Senator Rick Santorum described Prasad as “the man destroying @POTUS legacy for helping patients. FDA’s Vinay Prasad Stands with Progressive Health Policies.”
Friendship and loyalty is one thing, but to make the same mistake again, or even want to, shows poor judgment. The FDA is too important to be a clubhouse for friends. If Makary is desperate to repeat a big mistake he made in his short tenure, maybe the mistake was hiring him in the first place?
Derek Hunter is the host of the Derek Hunter Show on WMAL in Washington, DC, and has a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.
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