I got to this article at Politico by David Lim, Adam Cancryn, and Lauren Gardner fourth hand, that is I was pointed to it by an article which pointed to another article which pointed to the Politico article which is about the difficulty that Robert Califf is facing being confirmed as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. You’d think he’d be a shoe-in. Cardiologist, highly-published, former FDA commissioner (confirmed 89-4), we’re in the middle of a pandemic, he’s been appointed to head an agency key dealing with the pandemic. What’s the hold-up?
- It isn’t due to Republican intransigence—he actually received support from some of the Republicans in committee
- He’s stalled due to lack of support from Senate Democrats. When Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin link arms in opposition to a nomination, there’s a problem.
- The White House isn’t doing much to promote his nomination
- He’s made millions in pharmaceutical stocks
The article caught my attention because it highlights so many of the things that are wrong with our government and our politics. Portraying this as a partisan issue is a distortion of the facts.
Dr. Califf has no actual formal credentials ever to have led the FDA other than an MD. We are a very different society than we were 50 years ago. Specializations are much narrower. There are now advanced degrees in health administration, public health administration, public policy, and on down the list.
He’s very clearly a staunch member of the public health-industrial complex or maybe I should say the public health-education-industrial complex, bopping back and forth among higher education, the federal government, and the private sector. Dr. Califf is practically a poster child for regulatory capture between outsized consulting fees from pharmaceutical companies trading in pharmaceutical company stock.
And why isn’t the White House managing his nomination? Can’t anybody here play this game?
OTOH the most followed medical authority on twitter during the pandemic has been a cardiologist. Twitter science. The ability to tweet all day may separate himself from the other pretenders, but cardiology must be the master science, or his influence is all just politics by another name.
Say it ain’t so, PD!
You should make that “MILITARY-public health-education-industrial complex.” Eisenhower also warned of an alliance of universities, faculties, Congress, and industry. He thought that alliance would seriously degrade the quality and integrity of scientific research in the US, and it most obviously has. The replication crisis has destroyed the social sciences, where no replication seems possible, and it has seriously degraded the reliability of the physical and biological sciences. The biological sciences are also replication-challenged, and the medical sciences are actually corrupt.
I write that as someone who taught environmental science and engineering for 37 years, 35 in a major research institute, with a specialty in biological sciences.
The corruption goes back a long time. No one knows what happened, if anything at Love Canal in 1978.
I would say the fact that Califf has “made millions in pharmaceutical stocks†is a troubling “negative.†Being a former FDA Commissioner ties him him even more to big pharma, as the FDA gets 50% of it’s funding from pharmaceuticals.
As an aside, whistleblowers have copied data from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) showing the actual increases in harm these vaccines have done to members in the military. Heart attacks, Bell Palsy, Female infertility, pulmonary embolisms are but a few noted that have increased in the 100s of percents the year following mandated vaccinations. With other evidence now rearing it’s head, of undisclosed vaccine data showing more deaths occurring in vaccinated groups than in the placebo ones, pharmaceuticals like Pfizer are going to have a lot of explaining to do, as well as the people who profited from them, such as Califf.
I’m aware of that. I’m waiting for confirmation from an additional source before commenting on it. It’s troubling if true for many reasons.
“the most followed medical authority on twitter during the pandemic has been a cardiologist.â€
I thought that title belonged to a nutritionist, not a cardiologist. Lol.
I think the CDC director should have real public health training and/or experience. The FDA commissioner does need, I think, familiarity with the development of drugs, research methods and the private sector not just academics. I am not sure an ideal candidate exists. Someone with a pure academic background will be less familiar with actual drug development and marketing. Someone coming from the pharma industry will always be seen as favoring the pharma industry too much.
Aside from his connections to industry, which can be seen as negative or positive, he seems to have some decent qualifications. That Duke institute is very large and has been successful. Part of what has made Duke such a good institution. I hire people from there over a lot of the Ivies now.
Steve