Trump’s FDA pick made his name by bashing the medical establishment. Soon he may be leading it

WASHINGTON — Dr. Marty Makary rose to national attention by skewering the medical establishment in books and papers and bashing the federal response to COVID-19 on TV.

Now the Johns Hopkins University surgeon and researcher has been nominated to lead the Food and Drug Administration. The agency — responsible for regulating products ranging from toothpaste to vaccines — is famously understated, issuing carefully worded statements devoid of opinion or scientific speculation.

That’s the opposite approach of Makary, whose sweeping rhetoric and biting criticism often veer into hyperbole, according to a review of recent speeches, interviews and podcast appearances by The Associated Press.

Makary has called the U.S. food supply “poison,” says the federal government is the “greatest perpetrator of misinformation” about COVID-19 and regularly suggests that pesticides, fluoride and overuse of antibiotics may be to blame for rising rates of infertility, attention deficit disorder and other health conditions. He’ll appear Thursday before a Senate panel considering his nomination.

Makary’s views align with those of the man who would be his boss: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. health secretary who built a following by sowing doubts about vaccines, ultraprocessed foods and fluoride. Notably, Makary has never embraced Kennedy’s discredited idea that vaccines might cause autism.

Experts who have worked with Makary say his contrarian approach could be useful at FDA — but only if he’s able to resist political pressure from Kennedy and others on hot-button issues like vaccines.

“He has this reputation of being someone who cares about evidence and transparency,” said Dr. Reshma Ramachandran of Yale University, who was part of an informal research group with Makary. “The question is whether he’s going to preserve and defend the integrity of the agency or is he going to fall in line with the administration.”

Makary did not respond to an AP interview request.

Trained as a pancreatic surgeon, Makary’s initial work focused on uncontroversial topics like hospital costs and surgical checklists.

In 2016, he made headlines with a paper stating that medical errors were “the third leading cause of death in the U.S.” That conclusion was quickly disputed by other experts, who said the paper’s death estimate was ten times higher than more rigorous reviews.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Makary reached a much broader audience as a regular on Fox News,…