12 former FDA commissioners sound alarm over FDA vaccine policies

A dozen former FDA commissioners have sounded the alarm about radical changes to vaccine policy announced in an internal memo last week by CBER Director Vinay Prasad. In an extraordinary statement from former government leaders who usually avoid criticizing their successors, they have accused current FDA leadership of threatening the integrity and effectiveness of U.S. vaccine regulation.

Writing in The New England Journal of Medicine, the former commissioners also expressed broader concerns about the agency. The policies outlined in Prasad’s memo are the latest in a “series of troubling changes at the FDA, including substantial departures of FDA staff, that could diminish both the FDA’s strength and Americans’ health and safety,” they warned...