Rob Calif­f's nom­i­na­tion to be the next FDA com­mis­sion­er is now in se­ri­ous lim­bo

His­tor­i­cal­ly, FDA nom­i­nees have breezed through their Sen­ate con­fir­ma­tion votes.

In fact, the clos­est Sen­ate vote for an FDA nom­i­nee in re­cent mem­o­ry was Scott Got­tlieb’s con­fir­ma­tion, which came with a 15-vote mar­gin in his fa­vor. Even for­mer Pres­i­dent Trump’s FDA nom­i­nee Stephen Hahn won more than 70 sen­a­tors’ votes from both sides of the aisle.

But Rob Califf’s sec­ond at­tempt to be FDA com­mis­sion­er (his first con­fir­ma­tion in 2016 was an­oth­er 89-4 breeze) is prov­ing to be the most dif­fi­cult ever. And it’s com­ing at a crit­i­cal mo­ment for the coun­try as Omi­cron has tak­en hold, and as the FDA has come un­der fire for some of its de­ci­sion mak­ing and clar­i­ty around its plans for Covid-19 boost­ers.

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