Newly revealed documents appear to indicate that several high-level officials within the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) resigned from their positions out of protest of the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) efforts to rush the COVID-19 vaccines into production and distribution.
As reported by the Daily Caller, one such official was Dr. Phil Krause, the former deputy director of the FDA’s vaccine review office, who submitted his resignation last year. In official emails, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by the watchdog group Judicial Watch, Krause and Dr. Marion Gruber, director of the FDA’s vaccine review office, both expressed their concerns about quickly authorizing COVID-19 boosters for the general population without proper testing.
“From my brief discussion with Peter [presumably, CBER Director Peter Marks] this morning, after some calls with CDC and HHS last night, the problem is that the [redacted]. Take a deep breath before reading this next paragraph,” said Krause in one of the emails. “On that call, the CDC evidently stated that they will assemble all the data they are aware of on third dosing in this setting, and send it to us in the hope that we will (very soon) authorize the third dose for immunocompromised as part of the EUA.”
“Peter told me that CBER IOD [presumably CBER Immediate Office of the Director] will triage this,” Krause continued. “I told him I need to be cc:ed on any of these communications so we don’t get blindsided, but that we also need to protect the review team.”
In 2021, Krause co-wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post calling out the Biden Administration for what he described as “sidelining” top scientists in an effort to rush out vaccines and boosters for political gain. Then, in February of this year, Krause again wrote that mandates forcing people to get COVID boosters were not justified, and could be considered “overkill at best,” pointing to the fact that many people had already developed natural immunity to the virus through prior infections.
Krause’s concerns are shared by other officials still within the FDA. Dr. Paul Offit, one of the advisors on the FDA’s expert vaccine committee, recently said that he and his colleagues are stunned by the FDA’s determination to ignore regular procedures when it comes to approving the COVID-19 vaccines.