GAO: FDA work­ers feared re­tal­i­a­tion for com­ing clean on po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence be­hind sci­en­tif­ic de­ci­sions

Dur­ing the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion, FDA and CDC em­ploy­ees said that they did not re­port po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence in their sci­en­tif­ic work be­cause they feared re­tal­i­a­tion, among oth­er rea­sons, ac­cord­ing to a new Gov­ern­ment Ac­count­abil­i­ty Of­fice re­port re­leased Wednes­day.

The re­port was re­leased as the FDA’s FOIA of­fice al­so pro­vid­ed a peek be­hind the scenes of some of the FDA po­lit­i­cal ap­pointees’ wheel­ing and deal­ing from the last ad­min­is­tra­tion, and as for­mer Pres­i­dent Trump sought a vac­cine au­tho­riza­tion pri­or to the elec­tion, and pushed for the con­tro­ver­sial hy­drox­y­chloro­quine EUA de­ci­sion (lat­er re­voked).

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