Sadly that is not what this is. If you review his background, you will see a total shill for RFK (and is probably why he came back). It’s nice to see MAGA tearing itself apart though…

My hope is that they replace him w/ someone more incompetent in regulatory affairs but less personally vindictive. I think the few public servants remaining could hopefully navigate that better rather than the passive-aggressive bully he was. B/c in they end, they are our last lifeline

He just wanted the last say and be the ultimate decider for A LOT of people. MAGA wants Trump and pharma to be the deciders. The old, non-MAHA FDA want scientific consensus to be the decider. So I don’t think it was principle that got him the boot…

I think saying he refused gives him too much credit. He fired the woman (& another colleague) leading it who had the same skepticism about the drug. He then unilaterally cancelled the advisory committee on it, which would have allowed for true scientific input on the trials…

so much driving motivation in people in even the slightest position of power, regardless of where they find themselves on the political map, is "i should never have to feel bad, feel regret, feel shame, or otherwise reconsider my decisions" and every choice, policy and personal, falling from there

Parroting their talking points for them is unnecessary, even when there are half-truths. The line about him overriding 30 scientists bc he thinks there might be undiscovered harms in a vaccine given to millions of people…like I don’t think he cares about finding evidence of benefit

Is there uncertainty about harm? If they wanted more studies, they could talk about it in 1 of million photo-ops with NIH/HHS execs. But they are slashing everything too. Which makes me think that this is just a dubious claim to justify a power trip rather than a belief in evidence standard.

Very cult of personality tweet. “Don’t trust the crowds screaming safety and justice, look at this guy who strings words together really well”

My 2€: it was built to address a system (science) not entirely aligned with its values (curiosity & integrity) as it became more enmeshed with corruptive systems ($$). This created a more grievance-like culture, which tends to favor charismatic leaders rather than the needed successful bureaucracy