RFK Jr. calls FDA a 'sock puppet' for industry in private speech to agency staff
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent a portion of his speech on Friday to FDA staff deriding their past decisions, at one point saying that the agency “became a sock puppet” for the industries it was meant to regulate.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in a speech Friday to Food and Drug Administration staff, derided their past decisions, at one point saying that the agency had become “a sock puppet” for the industries it was meant to regulate.
NBC News obtained a recording of Kennedy’s address, his first joint appearance with the new FDA commissioner, Dr. Marty Makary. The event was meant to welcome both men and highlight the agency’s priorities moving forward.
Those priorities include determining the causes of autism and reforming the FDA’s “GRAS” pathway, which allows food companies to add ingredients without prior approval.
Kennedy claimed that the FDA’s proximity to the food industry has resulted in its failure to address food contamination.
“Like every agency,” he said, the FDA “at one point really became a sock puppet for the industry it was supposed to regulate.”
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