The top vaccine official at the Food and Drug Administration has resigned.
Dr. Vinay Prasad, just months into his tenure, is leaving the FDA, the FDA’s parent agency said on July 29.
“Dr. Prasad did not want to be a distraction to the great work of the FDA in the Trump administration and has decided to return to California and spend more time with his family,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told The Epoch Times in an email. “We thank him for his service and the many important reforms he was able to achieve in his time at FDA.”
Prasad did not respond to a request for comment.
A longtime college professor, Prasad gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic for criticizing the broad COVID-19 vaccine mandates and recommendations, including recommendations that all young men receive vaccines even though they faced an elevated risk of heart inflammation.
He also wrote on social media about his politics, with a post in 2020 offering that he wanted Joe Biden to beat President Donald Trump and a 2022 post describing how he aligned with the Democratic Party on a wide range of topics such as abortion and immigration.
Some Republicans had been critical of Prasad in recent days, including influencer Laura Loomer and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).
“FDA’s Vinay Prasad Stands with Progressive Health Policies,” Santorum wrote in a post on X.
“Very productive day today,” Loomer said on X after the announcement that Prasad had resigned. “It’s very important that we protect President Trump.”
Prasad was named the head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research in May by Dr. Marty Makary, the FDA’s commissioner and a friend of Prasad’s. Prasad and Makary went on to establish a new policy for COVID-19 vaccines, halting license approvals absent clinical trial data.
Prasad overruled FDA staffers on three COVID-19 vaccines, including two from Moderna. The FDA approved the vaccines for the elderly as well as younger people with an underlying condition, who are at higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes, but not for the rest of the rest of the U.S. population.
Some doctors had expressed concern that the decisions still went too far, prompting Makary to tell The Epoch Times that the approval decisions were a way to compel the companies to run trials.
Prasad, who had also in the past criticized how his predecessor overruled staffers to approve a gene therapy for muscular dystrophy, also pressured the maker of the therapy into halting shipments following the deaths of multiple patients, although the FDA on July 28 allowed shipments to resume.
“Under Vinay Prasad’s leadership, the FDA is adopting a European-socialist stance on American healthcare and innovation, a radical shift that prioritizes restrictive policies over progress. His approach is a step backward, stifling the innovation that has long driven U.S. medical advancements,” Loomer wrote on X. “Prasad’s regressive measures could delay critical treatments and hinder innovation, ultimately putting lives at risk as access to cutting-edge therapies is curtailed.”
Supporters of Prasad lamented his resignation.
“Prasad’s FDA departure is a disgrace to the Agency and the Trump administration. Caving to misleading hit pieces,” Jessica Adams, a former FDA officer, wrote on X.
She said that the move suggested officials held Prasad’s prior political views against him, even though he “may have evolved through the pandemic” and “did not make politics his main career focus,” instead focusing on research, teaching, and medical practice.
“He was brought in to enforce appropriate standards, increase trust, and show independence from Pharma corruption,” she said. “Not a good sign that he was pushed out.”