By MATTHEW PERRONE and SEUNG MIN KIM AP Health Writer
Marty Makary is resigning as President Donald Trump's Food and Drug Administration head. The surgeon and health researcher's tenure had drawn complaints from health industry executives, anti-abortion activists and other Trump allies. Trump said Tuesday that Makary "was having some difficulty" but "he's going to go on and he's going to do well." Makary came to the attention of Republicans as an outspoken critic of COVID-19 health measures during the pandemic, when he appeared frequently on Fox News Channel. But at the FDA, Makary failed to win the staff's confidence after mass layoffs, leadership changes and a series of controversies in which the agency's scientific principles appeared to be overridden by political interests.
The U.S. government will pay the vaccine maker Moderna $176 million to accelerate development of a pandemic influenza vaccine. The vaccine could be used to treat bird flu in people as cases in dairy cows continue to mount across the country. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday it is funding the development of a vaccine based on the same mRNA technology that allowed the rapid development and rollout of vaccines to protect against COVID-19. The H5N1 bird flu virus was detected earlier this year in dairy cows and has spread to more than 135 herds in 12 states and infected three people. Federal officials say the risk to the public remains low.
