As fears of a po­lit­i­cal­ly-mo­ti­vat­ed vac­cine EUA grow, Er­ic Topol de­liv­ers an ul­ti­ma­tum to com­mis­sion­er Hahn: Stand up or re­sign

One of the most vo­cal op­po­nents of the FDA’s plas­ma de­ci­sion capped a week of crit­i­cism last night with an ex­tra­or­di­nary call: Stephen Hahn, the com­mis­sion­er of the FDA, should ei­ther ad­mit to bend­ing to Don­ald Trump’s po­lit­i­cal agen­da in de­clar­ing “a his­toric break­through” or re­sign.

In an open let­ter on Med­scape, Scripps Re­search Trans­la­tion­al In­sti­tute founder Er­ic Topol blast­ed Hahn for what he ar­gued were re­peat­ed breach­es of the FDA’s mis­sion to ad­vance “ac­cu­rate, sci­ence-based in­for­ma­tion,” from the de­ci­sion to au­tho­rize hy­drox­y­chloro­quine in March to the sec­ond remde­sivir EUA is­sued on Aug. 28. He crit­i­cized him for vast­ly over­stat­ing the ben­e­fits of con­va­les­cent plas­ma at the White House press con­fer­ence and al­leged he had buck­led to ap­par­ent and re­port­ed po­lit­i­cal pres­sure.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER