US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary suggested in a new interview that autism is caused by a range of environmental and dietary exposures, echoing some comments made by US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. but stopping short of referencing vaccines. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is the cumulative burden of all of these exposures, environmental and dietary, that alter the microbiome,\u201d he told Megyn Kelly in an hourlong interview that spanned issues such as societal distrust of federal health agencies, industry influence and food policy. <\/p>\n
He also insisted that Kennedy\u2019s criticism of vaccines \u2014 and push to study links between immunizations and autism, although research has found no proof of any ties \u2014 has been misconstrued. \u201cThat\u2019s not what he\u2019s saying at all,\u201d Makary said before referencing a study at the US National Institutes of Health using electronic health records to find potential autism drivers. Kennedy has said the agency is involved in a \u201cmassive\u201d testing and research effort that will find some of <\/strong>the causes of autism by September. <\/strong> <\/p>\n Makary\u2019s interview on \u201cThe Megyn Kelly Show,\u201d published Thursday, marks his first sit-down discussion since starting in the commissioner role 17 days earlier. It came nearly a week after a visit from the <\/strong>HHS secretary to the FDA campus that unleashed controversy over Kennedy\u2019s allegations of \u201cdeep state\u201d corruption within the agency. <\/p>\n Makary appeared to defend Kennedy\u2019s remarks, citing the opioid crisis as \u201cthe quintessential example of what\u2019s wrong with a cozy relationship, when the regulator agency is captured by the industry.\u201d <\/p>\n But he also told Kelly that \u201cthere are no plans for any mass cuts\u201d at the FDA after roughly 3,500 employees were laid off this month in restructuring led by the Department of Government Efficiency. <\/p>\n \u201cIf somebody is doing a good job doing [a drug or device] review, we want to encourage them and support it. It\u2019s hard work,\u201d Makary said. \u201cWe want to do other things here at the FDA to support a great culture.\u201d <\/p>\n Makary said the FDA would remove industry representatives from advisory committees that discuss reviews of drugs, vaccines and medical devices. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to be replacing them, whenever statutorily possible, with patients and \u2026 family caregivers,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are going to be inviting pharma companies to send representatives to the advisory committees, but they can sit with the rest of the public and watch and pose questions as the rest of the American public can.\u201d <\/p>\n Although these advisory committees typically include an industry representative, they do not have voting power on the committees\u2019 questions. <\/p>\n Kelly asked Makary about Dr. Peter Marks, the former director of the FDA\u2019s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, who was forced out last month. Marks, who had been instrumental in shaping the first Trump administration\u2019s Operation Warp Speed effort to rapidly develop Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, wrote in his resignation letter that Kennedy is undermining vaccine confidence. <\/p>\n Makary distanced himself from Marks and his comments. <\/p>\n \u201cI never knew the guy. I never met him. He resigned before I came to office,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of talented people who can do that job well, a lot of very smart people who are right now \u2026 applying for that job.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary suggested in a new interview that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyretirementnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}