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Trump Administration’s Embattled FDA Vaccine Chief Is Leaving for the Second Time
The Food and Drug Administration’s embattled vaccine chief, Dr. Vinay Prasad, is once again leaving the agency — the second time in less than a year that he’s departed after controversial decisions involving the review of vaccinations and specialty drugs for rare diseases. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary announced the news to FDA staff in an email late Friday, saying Prasad would depart at the end of April. Makary said Prasad would return to his academic job at the University of California, San Francisco.
In July, Prasad was briefly forced from his job after running afoul of biotech executives, patient groups and conservative allies of President Donald Trump. He was reinstated less than two weeks later with the backing of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Makary.
Prasad’s latest ouster follows a string of high-profile controversies involving the FDA’s review of vaccines, gene therapies and biotech drugs in which companies have criticized the agency for reversing itself, in some cases calling for new trials of products previously greenlighted by regulators.
Newsom Picks a Dogfight With Trump and RFK Jr. On Public Health
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has positioned himself as a national public health leader by staking out science-backed policies in contrast with the Trump administration. After Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez for refusing what her lawyers called “the dangerous politicization of science,” Newsom hired her to help modernize California’s public health system.
He also gave a job to Debra Houry, the agency’s former chief science and medical officer, who had resigned in protest hours after Monarez’s firing. Newsom also teamed up with fellow Democratic governors Tina Kotek of Oregon, Bob Ferguson of Washington, and Josh Green of Hawaii to form the West Coast Health Alliance, a regional public health agency, whose guidance the governors said would “uphold scientific integrity in public health as Trump destroys” the CDC’s credibility.
Newsom argued establishing the independent alliance was vital as Kennedy leads the Trump administration’s rollback of national vaccine recommendations.
US Autism Advisory Board Will Not Meet in March as Scheduled, Health Agency Says
A U.S. autism advisory board will not hold a scheduled meeting in March, the Department of Health and Human Services said on Saturday. The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee makes recommendations to the health secretary on federal autism research spending and coordinates federal autism efforts. The group was scheduled to meet on March 19.
“The IACC will not meet later this month,” said HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon, without sharing additional details of the cancellation or a new meeting date. “Further information will be shared as available.” The panel was remade in January by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has suggested vaccines cause autism.
More than a third of the new committee members have promoted the debunked link between vaccines and autism. Some new members have said they aim to steer federal dollars toward investigating causes of autism as well as other issues like co-occurring medical disorders.
Last week, a dozen autism advocates, researchers and several former committee members formed the Independent Autism Coordination Committee to create its own strategic plan for autism research as a counter to the Kennedy-appointed group.
EPA’s Actions on Forever Chemicals Will Leave Americans Sicker, Not Safer
The Environmental Protection Agency is gaslighting the American public about contamination by PFAS. It claims major progress under a Make America Healthy Again agenda while actively weakening the very protections meant to reduce exposure to these toxic “forever chemicals.” When an agency charged with protecting public health replaces facts with spin, the consequences are real — measured in illness and lost lives.
I spent more than three decades at the EPA, including as director of the Office of Science and Technology in the Office of Water, overseeing the scientific foundation for drinking water protections. I know what meaningful action on PFAS looks like and when the agency is pretending progress while moving backward.
EPA is claiming credit for actions that were initiated and largely completed under the Biden administration, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding for emerging contaminants, new analytical methods to detect PFAS, designation of new pfas as hazardous substances and cleanup and drinking water monitoring at military installations and in tribal communities.
USDA OKs Ohio’s SNAP Ban on Sugary Drinks
Ohio has been given the green light to ban SNAP purchases of sugary carbonated drinks. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services’ waiver to prohibit the purchase of the drinks through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The change will take effect Oct. 1, 2026.
The waiver lasts for two years and includes a six-month hold-harmless period for SNAP retailers as the change is implemented. The waiver was requested in October 2025 after a working group gathered data, talked to experts and looked at the impacts on the nutrition of children. You can read the working group’s recommendations report here.
“This waiver that we requested and received through the USDA is a meaningful step toward better health outcomes for Ohioans on food assistance,” said ODJFS Director Matt Damschroder. “Today’s news is a result of Governor DeWine asking us to work with experts in nutrition, public health, and food access to find practical solutions that help Ohioans make healthier choices.”
RFK Jr. Says FDA Will Lift Ban on Peptides
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to loosen restrictions on some peptides that the FDA previously prohibited compounding pharmacies from producing, he said on an episode of Joe Rogan’s podcast. Kennedy wants to unban 14 of the 19 peptides that were placed on an FDA “do not formulate” list in 2023.
“The FDA … I think within a couple of weeks, we will have announced some kind of new action,” Kennedy told Rogan. “They’re still looking at the science [but] my hope is that they’re going to get moved to a place where people have access from ethical suppliers.”
Kennedy said the ban has led to the creation of a “very dangerous” black market for these compounds. Yet physicians argue that many of them don’t have sufficient evidence behind them to prove that they’re safe and that they work.
“All these peptides that you see being touted online … have absolutely nowhere near enough data to be approved for human use for any specific indication beyond some of the allegedly copycat bootleg versions of GLPs,” or glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, said Karl Nadolsky, DO, an endocrinologist in Michigan, in an Instagram post.
