Prasad Ousted from the FDA, Twice?!
Goodbye Boy Wonder, Again
As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Prasad has been ousted from the FDA yet again. Getting fired twice from the Trump Administration in less than a year is almost sort of impressive, if it wasn’t so pathetic. After an outside firm was brought in to investigate accusations of workplace abuse, complaints from biotech executives, and a frankly embarrassing melodrama of constant headlines, it is clear to almost everyone now what many pointed out for years - that you simply cannot place obnoxious social media trolls in charge of essential federal institutions.
What’s worse is that after this second ousting, Prasad is being welcomed back with open arms to the University of California San Francisco and his former Substack, Sensible Medicine. It’s as if nothing happened, as if Prasad shares no responsibility for his actions as head of FDA’s CBER division. Prasad’s Sensible Medicine co-conspirator John Mandrola foolishly claimed on Twitter:
“It shocks me that those who holler about disparities of US healthcare and its outlandish costs are happy that pharma $$ ousted a person interested in preserving value. Just shocking. [Vinay Prasad] we are happy to have you back at [Sensible Medicine.] -@drjohnm via Twitter, 3/6/2026
This is quite a hilarious rewriting of history, as happens with all of the COVID Disinformation Brigadiers. Whether it was refusing to review a new Moderna flu vaccine (not simply approve it, just review it) or attacking an experimental treatment for Huntington’s disease, a rare but devastating condition, Prasad proved himself to be completely out of his depth. When Donald Trump of all people has tell you how to do your job and is bizarrely on the right of the issue for once? That’s truly embarrassing.
The Purpose of the FDA
We can sit here and debate who should control the means of production for the research and development of vaccines and pharmaceuticals. The opinions are irrelevant to the facts of today: here in America, not the fictional nation of Prasadia, private companies are tasked with developing new drugs. FDA regulators are tasked with reviewing these drugs for their safety and efficacy, and either grant or deny approval to be sold on the open market.
Regulators must provide transparency and consistency in order for these companies to justify investing in the development of the next generation of lifesaving medications. Not blanket approvals, but instead a reliable process that is not governed by irrational, chaotic, and completely unprofessional antics. Vinay Prasad already established himself to be completely unqualified to handle this responsibility based upon years of rants and raves on social media.
In 2024, Prasad tweeted that had he been in charge of the pandemic response, the government would have done nothing beyond giving a single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to uninfected elderly. Preventing mass graves from being erected in every major American city wasn’t something he was concerned with:
Had John Mandrola truly been a friend of Vinay Prasad, he would have pulled his friend aside and advised him to leave the childish antics at home before joining the FDA. The responsibilites of a civil servant are far different from that of a social media troll. For one thing, you are now working on the behalf of all the people you spent years attacking on social media. Instead, Mandrola let his “friend” make an absolute fool of himself in the public square for all to see.
The Death of Professional Standards
It’s undeniably clear now that the Administration of the University of California San Francisco does not seem to care for upholding professional standards from their faculty, if they’re choosing to welcome Prasad back with open arms. They didn’t care about years of vulgar insults and smears on Prasad’s social media, and they don’t care that an outside firm was brought in to investigate Prasad’s abusive harassment of FDA staff. Prospective students looking to attend UCSF should seriously ask themselves if this is the academic culture that will best serve their career pursuits.
For pete’s sake, we are talking about a crank who exploited his position at the Food & Drug Administration to falsely claim in a deranged memo (designed to be leaked to the press) that the COVID-19 vaccine killed numerous children, based off of unverified VAERS reports, as a handout to his favorite anti-vaccine buddies on Twitter. On top of all of this, here’s a tweet from Congressman Jake Auchincloss:
“This ‘senior official’ was Vinay Prasad. Disclosing trade secret information without legal authorization is a prohibited act under the FDCA & a criminal violation under the Trade Secrets Act.” -@RepAuchincloss via Twitter, March 6th, 2026
These are incredibly serious allegations. How can you possibly expect someone like this to be able to reliably teach the next generation of doctors and scientists? What is UCSF teaching these students, when this is the sort of highly unethical misconduct they are permitting of their faculty?
Personal Thoughts
All of the serious business out of the way, I would like to now offer my thoughts on this recent news, as someone who has been reporting on Prasad’s antics for years now. This was an entirely predictable outcome, and I do believe I am entitled to one (1) singular sensible chuckle. So, here we go.
All of the years of tearing down others, making absurd accusations, casually ripping others apart. Given his first ever big boy job with real-world responsibility, Prasad completely failed. Getting ousted not once, but twice from Trump Administration alongside other incompetents like Jim O’Neil and Ralph “Measles is the cost of doing business” Abraham, completely humiliated. Not even Marty Makary running on cable news professing Prasad’s love of Trump could save him:
Now, I doubt that Prasad’s return to Sensible Medicine is going to feature a longform 5,000 word apology about the lessons learned from his faceplanting at the FDA. While it’s easy to tear others down from behind the safety of a keyboard or podcast microphone, it turns out it’s a lot harder to be an effective federal regulator. Prasad wasted such a great opportunity to separate his online persona from the real oncologist, and prove his doubters wrong. Much like Andrew Wakefield, Prasad will most likely paint himself a victim of a grand conspiracy organized by “Big Pharma” and play upon the sympathies of his beloved anti-vaxxers on Twitter like sadistic misogynist Alex Berenson.
That’s the problem of centering your whole life around your social media presence. You start to become a predictable creature of habit. You begin to lose sight of what’s truly important, getting your priorities all mixed up. This isn’t “Evidence-Based Medicine,” but instead nothing more than a pitiful performance for a limited, statistically irrelevant audience.
Thankfully, the world does not revolve around Vinay Prasad. In an ideal world, every last penny the American taxpayer paid Prasad, including $65,000/yearr in travel expenses, would be clawed back. This would include severe financial penalties for accepting a job Prasad knew he was completely unqualified for.
The American taxpayer shouldn’t be bankrolling a clown show.
