U.S. Public Health Agencies Aren't ‘Following the Science,’ Officials Say
U.S. Public Health Agencies Aren't ‘Following the Science,’ Officials Say ‘People are getting bad advice and we can’t say anything.’ Marty Makary M.D., M.P.H. and Tracy Beth Høeg M.D., Ph.D. President Joe Biden tours the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, in March 2021. (Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images) The calls and text messages are relentless. On the other end are doctors and scientists at the top levels of the NIH, FDA and CDC. They are variously frustrated, exasperated and alarmed about the direction of the agencies to which they have devoted their careers. “It's like a horror movie I'm being forced to watch and I can't close my eyes,” one senior FDA official lamented. “People are getting bad advice and we can’t say anything.” That particular FDA doctor was referring to two recent developments inside the agency. First, how, with no solid clinical data, the agency authorized Covid vaccines for infants and toddlers, including those wh...