Controversial vaccine official Dr. Vinay Prasad departs FDA

Dr. Vinay Prasad, the controversial FDA vaccine official who had been critical of the agency's moves to greenlight COVID-19 boosters, has left the agency, the Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday.

"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," HHS said. "We thank him for his service and the many important reforms he was able to achieve in his time at FDA."

Prasad had been serving as the FDA's director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research since May, replacing Dr. Peter Marks, who had been forced out by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Prasad was subsequently named chief medical and scientific officer, absorbing the roles of other top-ranking FDA officials who were removed or left under the Trump administration.

In recent weeks, right-wing influencer Laura Loomer had launched a social media campaign against Prasad, highlighting his past support for Democrats, including Sen. Bernie Sanders. Loomer called Prasad a "Lifelong Progressive with a Vicious Anti-Trump Record" and writing that "Prasad's views are a slap in the face to the conservative values of limited government, deregulation, and economic freedom that YOU voted for!"

But FDA chief Marty Markay over the weekend had defended Prasad over Loomer's comments, saying in a Politico podcast that Prasad is a "impeccable scientist … one of the greatest scientific minds of our generation."

Long a critic of the FDA for granting emergency use authorization for COVID-19 vaccine boosters, Prasad had called Marks "one of the most dangerous, pro-pharma regulators of the 21st century" and said he was "either incompetent or corrupt to authorize a booster without clinical, randomized data."

In his three-month tenure at the FDA, the agency decided to limit COVID-19 vaccine recommendations to people 65 years of age and older and others who are at high risk of becoming seriously ill if they are infected, and will require manufacturers to conduct clinical trials to show whether the vaccines are of benefit to healthy younger adults and children.

Earlier this month, the FDA released records that showed Prasad overrode career staff at the agency to limit the approvals of COVID-19 shots from Novavax and Moderna.

Alexander Tin contributed to this report.