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.

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