Why Does Dr. Vinay Prasad Refuse to Answer Questions About His Job Performance at the FDA?

Although he took softball questions from MAHA sycophant Bari Weiss, Dr. Vinay Prasad, a public servant, refuses to leave his safe space to answer tough, but fair questions from credible reporters like Lizzy Lawrence.
The post Why Does Dr. Vinay Prasad Refuse to Answer Questions About His Job Performance at the FDA? first appeared on Science-Based Medicine.

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“Had Collins, a man who has contributed greatly to science, chosen dialogue instead of contributing to animosity and combativeness, we might have been in a better place today.”

The Great Barrington Declaration was written in October 2020 by 3 laptop class doctors who had already drastically underestimated COVID multiple times by that early point in the pandemic. It claimed the mass infection of unvaccinated “not vulnerable” people would lead to herd immunity in 3-6 months, and it “called for” public health officials to make that miracle happen. It wasn’t an actionable plan for them. Rather, it was merely a list of demands for them, and that wasn’t an impressive achievement.

Others, however, saw immense value in this 1-page online petition. Dr. Vinay Prasad, for example, felt that public health leaders had an obligation to publicly debate the authors of the GBD as COVID raged. He wrote a scathing article titled At a Time When the U.S. Needed Covid-19 Dialogue Between Scientists, Francis Collins Moved to Shut It Down. What had Dr. Collins done to deserve this rebuke? In a private e-mail, he called for a “devastating takedown” of the premises of the GBD. That’s it. In contrast, Dr. Prasad felt the GBD’s premises were sacrosanct, and Dr. Collins had a duty to honor them with a public display of fealty and respect. He wrote:

What concerns me about the NIH director’s email and his interview on television is that he appeared unwilling to have this dialogue. Collins’s day job does not make him arbiter of scientific truth, the Pope for all scientists. On questions of unprecedented pandemic policy, he is surely entitled to his opinion — as we all are — but his is just one opinion of many.

When it comes to lockdowns or school closures, the answer to the question of whether the benefits exceed the harms and, if so, under what conditions, is far from certain, and scientists will continue to study this for decades. As a good scientist, Collins should have recognized the massive uncertainty around these policies.

Collins’s response to a memo signed by thousands of scientists should not have been to call for an immediate and devastating take down, but to use his pulpit as NIH director to hold a series of public discussions and dialogues. In a world where scientists were trapped in their own homes for months, a series of dialogues — even virtual ones — made available for the broader scientific community, policy makers, and the public would have benefited us all.

Dr. Prasad concluded:

Had Collins, a man who has contributed greatly to science, chosen dialogue instead of contributing to animosity and combativeness, we might have been in a better place today.

“Press representatives from the Health and Human Services Department and the FDA did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication. Neither did Prasad.”

So where is Vinay Prasad today?

Now that he is the medical establishment, I am calling for him to host a series of public discussions and dialogues with his critics. We know he “loves President Trump“, but not much else. Yet, from allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation, and waste of taxpayer money to political and pharma influence at the FDA, there are a lot of very legitimate questions about his leadership. He rarely shows up to work and is under investigation for his abusive behavior. Moreover, like his predecessors, Dr. Prasad is not the arbiter of scientific truth, the Pope for all scientists. Dr. Prasad is entitled to his opinion — as we all are — but his is just one opinion of many.

However, instead of openly communicating with the public and holding public debates as he called for previously, Dr. Prasad is in hiding. As measles devastates children, he refuses to use his platform as chief vaccine regulator to advocate for the MMR. He keeps Americans in the dark about his intentions and guessing at his next steps. He is wildly unpredictable, guilty of regulatory whiplash, and unwilling to have this dialogue, even with patient advocates. An article titled Rare Disease Advocates Fume Over FDA’s Mixed Signals quoted Jeff Carroll, a Huntington’s researcher and gene carrier, as saying:

I just wish one of them, somebody from the FDA, would be like, ‘Hi, my name is Dr. Smith, and this is why I made this decision, and here’s the policy that explains why and how you will have to jump in the future to get these kinds of therapies done.

On the rare occasions he does speak, people wisely don’t trust him. The article also quoted Wilson Bryan, who previously directed the gene therapy division at the FDA.

Bryan said he just ignores what Makary and Prasad say on stage.

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