Washington (AP) -Dr. Marty Makary has drawn attention nationally by spending the medical facility in books and papers and beating the federal response to Covid-19 on television.
Now the surgeon and researcher of Johns Hopkins University has been nominated to lead Food and Drug Administration. The agency – responsible for the regulation of products from toothpaste to vaccines – is eminent and provides carefully formulated statements without opinions or scientific speculation.
This is the opposite approach of Makary, whose comprehensive rhetoric and biting criticism often go into exaggeration, according to a review of the latest speeches, interviews and podcast phenomena of the Associated Press.
Makary has referred to the US food supply as a “poison”, says the Federal Government is the “greatest perpetrator of the misinformation” about Covid-19 and regularly suggests that pesticides, fluoride and overuse of antibiotics can be for the guilt of increasing rates of infertility, attention deficiency and other health conditions. He will be released on Thursday in front of a Senate body that is considering his nomination.
Makary’s views correspond to those of the man who would be his boss: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the US health secretary, who built a supporter with doubts about vaccines, ultra -propriced food and fluoride. In particular, Makary Kennedy’s discredited idea has never assumed that vaccines could cause autism.
Experts who have worked with Makary say that his contrary approach could be useful at the FDA-but only if he is able to resist Kennedy’s political pressure and others in balmy button issues such as vaccines.
“He has this reputation to be someone who takes care of evidence and transparency,” said Dr. Reshma Ramacandran from Yale University, which was part of an informal research group with Makary. “The question is whether he will preserve and defend the integrity of the agency or in which he is agreed with the administration.”
Makary did not respond to an AP interview request.
As a critic of Covid-19, Makary reached a recent audience on television
As a pancreatic surgeon, Makary’s first work focused on undisputed topics such as hospital costs and surgical checklists.
In 2016, he made headlines with a paper that was about medical mistakes “the third most common cause of death in the United States” that the conclusion was quickly denied by other experts that the information that the death estimate of the paper was ten times higher than stricter reviews.
During the Covid 19 pandemic, Makary achieved a much wider audience as a regular in Fox News, where he opposed vaccination mandate and described the FDA as “broken” and “in politics and bureaucracy”.
Makary often directs his toughest criticism of the “medical hybris” from other doctors, such as in his latest book “Blind Spots”, in which a number of cases are cataloged in which experts “have a perfect backwards”.
For example, he examines early recommendations that parents delay due to allergies when he gives babies peanut -based food base. Today, pediatricians generally recommend an earlier introduction to prevent food allergies.
Many researchers see such examples differently.
“These are cases in which people who can do the best have to do with further developed information and the decisions on the way,” said Dr. Aaron Kesselheim from the Harvard Medical School. “As a commissioner, he must be okay to make decisions on the basis of developing evidence – and some of these decisions could be wrong.”
Bind health problems to food and pesticides
Like others in Kennedy’s movement “Make America Healthy Healthy,” says Makary, says Makary, that many of the chronic health problems affect Americans are related to food additives, pesticides and other chemicals.
“How about researching pesticides who have hormone effects in children who may explain the falling fertility and reduce the puberty age?” Asked Makary in a September podcast with Dr. Drew Pinsky.
Marion Nestle, Food researcher at New York University, says that Makary’s questions are “extremely difficult to calm down”, as there is no way to carry out the type of research that is necessary to achieve a fixed conclusion: Give a group of children with pesticides and compare them with a control group that has not grown with pesticides.
“I sympathize with his frustration and think we would be much better with much less pesticides in our food supply, but I tend to look at these problems more carefully,” said Nestle.
Nutrition experts also say that it is excessively uncomplicated to explain all ultra -sonic foods harmful, since the category includes an estimated 60% of US foods, including muesli, peanut butter and ice.
“They are not all created the same,” said Gabby Hadrick at George Washington University. “It is much more complicated than showing your finger on ultra -proceeded food as drivers of chronic diseases in the United States.”
Attack Covid 19-booster
“The largest perpetrator of the misinformation during the pandemic was the government of the United States,” Makary told the legislators House during a round table 2023 organized by Republicans.
Among the many attacked guidelines from Covid-19 was the recommendation for booster shots for teenagers and teenage adults, especially in boys and teenage men. This group received special attention because early vaccinations showed a higher myocarditis rate, a infrequent form of heart inflammation, which is normally subtle. The problem arduous that Covid-19 also caused cases of myocarditis that were usually more sedate.
A paper made by Makary from 2022 came to the conclusion that the stimulation of boosters in teenage people would cause more injuries than benefits. None of the authors specialized in examining infectious diseases or vaccination reactions.
“You made a mistake after the mistake, and every time he minimized the advantages of the vaccine or exaggerated the risks,” said Dr. Robert Morris from the University of Washington, who published a criticism of the work. “This paper really fed the whole idea that the vaccine is worse than the disease.”
The conclusion of Makary contradicted the British experts and the centers for the control and prevention of diseases, which estimated that the booster prevented 114 hospital stays per seven that caused them in teenage people.
Despite such a pushback, Makary told the Congress that the CDC and FDA have lied to the American people about the need for booster and other covid measures.
Dr. Paul Offit, an FDA vaccine consultant, said the Biden administration made misconceptions in the introduction of boosters, including the announcement of plans to provide them for all age groups before external experts had been awaiting.
“It is a rhetoric that is intentionally inflammatory to gain a certain amount that is part of today’s zeitgeist of contempt for authorities in the area of public health,” said Offit. “So he offered the position at the FDA because he has contempt for the agency.”
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The AP medical writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this story.
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