FDA: Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse...

Geert Vanden Bossche Jun 03, 2025 EST

Anybody saw this one?

There you go—another incompetent weasel at the helm of the FDA. Can you believe this guy is seriously claiming that SARS-CoV-2 (SC-2) has now become seasonal and that there’s cross-immunity between JN.1 and NB.1.8.1? I mean, who actually buys into that nonsense?
As a seasoned virologist, I can confidently say: contrary to what this guy is peddling, the currently circulating SC-2 variants are anything but acting like a bunch of tame common cold viruses that magically grant each other mutual immunity!
What makes him think he’s somehow smarter than all his predecessors? And what exactly in his background qualifies him to make these sweeping, naïve claims about CoV immunology and virology? This guy reduces a highly complex, evolving immunological landscape into soundbites that wouldn’t pass a high school biology class.

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Then he has the nerve to start ranting about mutation rates—comparing CoV to influenza—while completely missing the point. It’s not about raw mutation rates, it’s about immune selection pressure highly Covid-19 (C-19) vaccinated populations are exerting on the virus. How does he not get that?
And don’t even get me started on his mind-blowingly reckless decision to only pull the plug on C-19 shots for healthy kids and pregnant women — but somehow still not have the guts to ban these useless vaccines outright for everyone else. What’s he waiting for? That compromise alone should disqualify him from any role involving public health. If anything, the last four years have made one thing crystal clear: these vaccines are neither safe nor effective and only accelerate immune escape and immune dysfunction in C-19 vaccinated populations. But hey, if SC-2 is now “just the fifth common cold virus,” why are we even still talking about C-19 vaccines? We don’t vaccinate against the other endemic CoVs, do we?

And then this genius claims that pregnancy is a medical risk factor for severe C-19 disease. Seriously? I’d suggest he switch careers and study veterinary medicine—at least then he’d learn that pregnancy is a normal physiological state in every female mammal in the wild. When will we finally stop treating human pregnancy as if it's some kind of abnormal, borderline pathological condition? This is beyond ridiculous. But, guys, no need to panic — the patient can always “just consult their doctor”!! As if that has led to anything remotely rational or helpful in the past four years. Give me a break!

This guy isn’t restoring public confidence or trust —he’s doing the opposite. His hollow rhetoric is only making people more confused. And now he’s suggesting we run randomized clinical trials in children to investigate whether the data would support C-19 vaccine recommendations for healthy kids or pregnant woman? What a joke. Any such trial would be so irrelevant it borders on insulting science itself. The level and type of viral exposure, as well as the nature of immune protection, depend on the evolutionary dynamics of the virus and the collective immunity within a given population. You can’t simulate that in a hand-picked clinical trial group of children or pregnant women! OMG!

Conclusion: Makary should pack up and head back to the operating room—or at least any space where his opinions don’t affect public health. Because frankly, he’s out of his depth.