Secretary of health and human services Alex Azar speaking in the Rose Garden at the White House (Photo: AFP)

Trump’s HHS claims ab­solute au­thor­i­ty over the FDA, clear­ing path to a vac­cine EUA

The top ca­reer staff at the FDA has vowed not to let pol­i­tics over­rule sci­ence when look­ing at vac­cine da­ta this fall. But Alex Azar, who hap­pens to be their boss’s boss, ap­par­ent­ly won’t even give them a chance to stand in the way.

In a new mem­o­ran­dum is­sued Tues­day last week, the HHS chief stripped the FDA and oth­er health agen­cies un­der his purview of their rule mak­ing abil­i­ty, as­sert­ing all such pow­er “is re­served to the Sec­re­tary.” Sheila Ka­plan of the New York Times first ob­tained and re­port­ed the de­tails of the Sep­tem­ber 15 bul­letin.

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Associate

Alexandria Real Estate Equities

Cambridge, MA, USA