FDA Commissioner Marty Makary is out

Dr Marty Makary built a public profile as a medical dissident willing to challenge orthodoxy. But once inside the FDA, reform proved far more complicated — and far more contradictory — than many expected.

His departure closes one of the more turbulent chapters in recent FDA history, marked by internal turmoil, senior staff turnover, and several high-profile resignations, including former vaccine chief Vinay Prasad.

In recent days, legacy media reports suggested Makary had come under increasing political pressure over issues ranging from vaping policy to mifepristone and broader regulatory disputes within the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump publicly shared Makary’s resignation message on social media while quickly naming Deputy Commissioner Kyle Diamantas as acting replacement.

Before entering government, Makary became widely known during the Covid era for criticising lockdowns, school closures, booster mandates for healthy young people, and what he saw as institutional groupthink inside public health.

To many people disillusioned by the pandemic response, he represented something hopeful - a prominent surgeon willing to openly break with medical consensus.

But running the FDA is different from criticising it from the outside.