By The Defender Staff
The Vaccine Skeptic in Trump’s New C.D.C. Leadership Team
When President Trump named a new leadership team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention two weeks ago, public attention focused on Dr. Erica Schwartz, his nominee to be the agency’s director. Her public support of vaccines was interpreted by some as a sign that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s quest to limit childhood immunizations might be coming to an end.
But another senior official Mr. Trump named to the team shares many of Mr. Kennedy’s views, suggesting the potential for continuing tension at the public health agency.
Mr. Trump appointed Dr. Sara Brenner, a deputy commissioner at the Food and Drug Administration and a self-described “MAHA mom,” to be Mr. Kennedy’s senior counselor for public health, a post that, unlike the C.D.C. director, does not require Senate confirmation.
A look at Dr. Brenner’s background suggests she is aligned with Mr. Kennedy on some of his signature issues, including skepticism about vaccines and a strong belief in the importance of fitness.
The public health counselor serves as the liaison between the health secretary and the C.D.C. (and on occasion the White House). As such, Dr. Brenner, who starts the job in the next couple of weeks, will be Mr. Kennedy’s eyes and ears at an agency he has been warring with through most of his tenure as the nation’s top health official.
Pressure on DOJ to Prosecute Anthony Fauci Grows After Adviser Indicted — With Days Left to Charge Covid ‘Lies’
The indictment of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s former adviser David Morens Tuesday revived calls for the Justice Department to prosecute Fauci himself for allegedly lying to Congress about funding risky research in China before the COVID-19 pandemic. Just two weeks remain before the five-year legal deadline on May 11 to indict Fauci for denying under oath that he funded “gain of function” experiments that modified bat coronaviruses in the same city where the pandemic started.
Morens, 78, was charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of destruction, alteration, or falsification of records in federal investigations and two counts of concealment, removal, or mutilation of records relating to the origins of COVID-19. He faces up to 51 years in prison.
Trump told The Post in a phone interview on March 31 that he intended to “look into” Fauci’s status and Republicans say they believe acting attorney general Todd Blanche, who is seeking the role permanently, might be willing to test Trump’s assertion that former President Joe Biden’s preemptive autopen pardons, including for Fauci, are invalid.
Casey Means: ‘Murkowski Sank My Nomination’
Sen. Lisa Murkowski delivered the coup de grâce in ending the nomination of Casey Means, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s choice for surgeon general, Means told POLITICO Thursday. The Alaska Republican told the Trump administration this week she was a “no” on the nominee, Means said, effectively dooming her chances of winning the Senate Health Committee’s approval, a prerequisite for confirmation.
Means’ withdrawal is a blow to Kennedy, who made an impassioned plea for her confirmation two weeks ago, calling her “the most articulate, eloquent and erudite evangelist” of his Make America Healthy Again movement, which seeks to combat the causes of chronic disease.
Kennedy also called out her opponents for a “lack of integrity” and “lack of courage” and said it was indicative of “the tribalism that is polarizing and destroying our country.”
Katherine Szarama Named Acting Director of FDA’s Vaccines and Biologics Center
The Food and Drug Administration has named Katherine Szarama as the acting director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, which regulates vaccines, gene therapies, and the blood supply. A Health and Human Services official confirmed the move, which was first reported by Politico, to STAT.
She is replacing Vinay Prasad, who left the agency on Thursday after a tumultuous tenure during which he issued a series of controversial decisions on rare disease drugs and vaccines. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said in March that Prasad would return to the University of California San Francisco.
Szarama joined the FDA at the end of last year to serve as Prasad’s deputy. She trained as a biophysicist at Johns Hopkins and the Karolinska Institutet. Later, she worked as a research analyst at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a director of clinical trials at Arnold Ventures, and a program manager at the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, according to her LinkedIn profile.
Top Psychiatrists Call for a Greater Focus on Ceasing Medication
As Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sets out to rein in the use of psychiatric medications, a group of prominent psychiatrists are developing guidance for helping patients to stop taking them, noting that providers sometimes “park” patients on medications that are no longer necessary or effective.
The experts, whose first recommendations appeared in JAMA Network Open and the British Journal of Psychiatry, identify structural problems that may lead to overprescribing: There are few clinical trials showing when it is advisable to stop a medication; many providers do not regularly review whether a prescription is still needed; and psychiatry residents receive more training in starting drug prescriptions than stopping them.
“We have not really taught our trainees to think about, what is the logical endpoint?” said Dr. Joseph F. Goldberg, a past president of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology, which convened a group of 45 psychiatrists to agree on basic principles for “deprescribing,” as supervised drug tapering is sometimes called. “You’ll see a patient in consultation who has been parked on a medication which seems to be ineffective for years, and you’ll ask, ‘Why are you still on this medicine?’” he said. “We’ve got a bugaboo going about passive re-prescribing, and I hope we’ll see much less of that.”
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