Americans — especially Hispanic Americans — expect leadership that protects our families’ health and wellbeing.
We want to know our children will receive safe medicines, that vaccines are properly vetted, and that the nation’s top health regulators are focused on science, not internal warfare.
But today, under FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, the agency is unraveling — and our communities are paying the price.
Inside the FDA, Makary has created an environment defined by chaos, forced resignations, and ideological crusades.
Nowhere is this more visible than at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), where his handpicked chief, Dr. Vinay Prasad, has become one of the most divisive figures inside the entire department.
Prasad's hostility toward colleagues — and especially toward legendary oncology leader Dr. Richard Pazdur — is no secret.
Before joining the FDA, Prasad built a career out of attacking the agency, publicly accusing Pazdur of being "corrosive," prioritizing industry over patients, and even publishing a disturbing blog post that imagined Pazdur telling researchers to "punish those people, kill them, if you have to."
That alone should have disqualified him from a senior regulatory leadership role.
Instead, Makary elevated him — and the damage has been enormous.
Prasad pushed out at least seven senior leaders, draining decades of institutional knowledge.
Hundreds more employees resigned in 2025, fleeing what many describe as retaliation, instability, and open hostility.
Some even tried to transfer to other divisions for their own wellbeing, only to have Prasad block those moves.
The result is a biologics and vaccine safety division gutted from within — precisely the part of the FDA that working-class families like ours depend on most.
Faced with this implosion, Makary then scrambled for credibility and turned to the one figure universally respected across oncology and regulatory science: Dr. Richard Pazdur.
With nearly 30 years at FDA and a reputation for scientific rigor, Pazdur was tapped to stabilize the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER).
But what happened next revealed the true depth of dysfunction.
Only three weeks after accepting the role, Pazdur abruptly announced his retirement — a stunning departure that sent shockwaves through the scientific community.
His exit is not routine; it is a damning indictment of the turmoil inside the agency.
CDER itself has lost more than 1,000 staff members in the past year.
Morale is shattered.
Critical drug-review operations are under immense strain.
And instead of slowing down to restore order, Makary is launching high-risk policy experiments — including a new "voucher" scheme to shrink priority drug reviews to as little as one or two months.
Speed means nothing when the underlying scientific workforce has been hollowed out.
The American people cannot trust a fast-track system built on dysfunction.
For families like mine — working-class Latino families who rely on public-health institutions and community clinics — this collapse is deeply personal.
My abuela trusted these systems to safeguard her medications.
Millions of families still do. But today the FDA looks less like a guardian of public health and more like an arena for personal vendettas and ideological battles.
That is not what MAHA promised when RFK Jr. took leadership of HHS — and our communities deserve better. This is the moment when Secretary RFK Jr. must step in.
Latino, Black, rural, and working-class families feel the consequences first when federal institutions collapse.
Children waiting for rare-disease treatments.
Parents battling cancer. Seniors managing chronic conditions.
These families cannot be collateral damage in Makary and Prasad’s internal war.
Secretary Kennedy, the MAHA promise was about rebuilding institutions that serve the people — not destabilizing them.
You now have the opportunity, and the responsibility, to steady the FDA, restore integrity at the highest levels, and ensure that public health is driven by science, not ego.
Our communities believed in that promise once.
We are asking you to renew it — not for the powerful, but for the people who depend on a functioning, trustworthy healthcare system every single day.
Bianca Gracia is president of the Latinos for Trump/Latinos for America First Organization, Founder and Executive Director of Latinos for America First PAC. She has worked as the chief strategist at The America Project, Hispanic Engagement Director of the Republican Party of Texas, and the State Director of Faith and Freedom Coalition. She's the former President of Líderes de la Comunidad, Americanos Conservative United, director and adviser for Blexit Texas. Ms. Gracia has appeared on Fox, Steve Bannon's "War Room," Newsmax, OANN, and can be heard live Monday mornings at 8 a.m. on 1440 Keys AM in Corpus Christi, Texas. Read more of her reports — Here.
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