I have a few concerns about George Tidmarsh’s recent appointment as director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) which fits into wider concerns about the current administration. As usual in this adminstration, this boils down to a tendency to fringe medicine and vaccine denial adjacent thinking.
- Association with “fringe” medical publishing: Tidmarsh contributed to the Journal of the Academy of Public Health, which Bloomberg and other outlets have described as a “fringe medical journal” connected to a conservative nonprofit.
- Criticism of COVID-19 public health policy: Tidmarsh has openly criticized the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the “Derate the Hate” podcast, he lamented what he saw as political polarization and lack of “academic freedom” in pandemic-era policy discussions, and suggested openness to the theory of a lab origin for the coronavirus.
I also find a degree of irony in Tidmarsh’s leadership roles in several biotech and pharmaceutical companies—including as founder and CEO of Horizon Therapeutics and Threshold Pharmaceuticals. RFKJr, and others have spent a lot of time criticizing the revolving door between industry and government regulation. And here we have a great example of that revolving door.
In any other administration, Tidmarsh would be concerning due to his connections to fringe science. In this administration he is another worrisome personnel decision given authority.
Investigations of a Dog 