Short Takes and Updates — February 6, 2025
Today is the first “Short Takes and Updates” column. For those who have not signed up to receive the FDA Matters newsletter in your email box, go to the home page to register.
1. US to Leave the World Health Organization—An Alternative Interpretation.
For those who followed Trump 1.0 closely and parsed Project 2025 carefully, it is not a surprise that the World Health Organization (WHO) has been targeted by the new Administration. A summary of items in dispute is here.
However, I did not expect the notice of withdrawal to be a “day one” priority nor did I expect it would be in the form of an executive order (here). Fortunately, there is some leeway–best understood as: our participation ends now, but the required notice of one year means we are, at least for now, still members.
At last week’s wide-ranging Kinexum-sponsored webinar (https://youtu.be/9GMdrZ6fdY4 and https://youtu.be/eK9dUwcLNiY), a deep bench of participants with FDA expertise, spoke eloquently about the value and continuing need for WHO. Clearly, exiting WHO would be a loss for both US and global health.
In response, I offered an alternative interpretation of what might happen next. The new Administration likes to open with an extreme position (e.g., tariffs will be imposed in three days) then use that to gain leverage in subsequent negotiations. I am hopeful—albeit far from certain—that WHO will work out that way. It may require changes at WHO—perhaps significant one—but the US will continue to belong. At least that is my hope.
2. The Time Is Ripe for Improving Food Safety.
My earlier column (Down is Good and Up Is Bad; Or is the Other Way Around?) concluded that: “There is no better time than now to create a comprehensive plan for improving food safety at the federal, state, and local levels — and push forward together as a community for its funding and implementation.”
As reported by Food Safety News (here), the General Accounting Office has issued a new report on food safety (here), which concludes that: “We previously reported on the need for a national strategy to guide federal efforts to address ongoing fragmentation and improve the federal food safety oversight system. This strategy could address our other previous matters for congressional consideration about a government-wide performance plan and sustained leadership for federal food safety. We maintain that such a strategy could create an opportunity to further strengthen federal oversight of the nation’s food supply and reduce the economic and public health effects of foodborne illness.”
To my many friends in the food stakeholder community, as well as the leaders of FDA, CDC, and FSIS: the time is now, let’s work together to make this happen!
Another voice in agreement: Frank Yiannas, former Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response at FDA weighed in this morning with a column in Food Safety News (here).
3. Retirement-eligible FDA Employees Likely Key to How Many FDA Employees Accept the Proposed Buy-Out
My inaugural column on January 10, (Is a Mass Exodus From FDA Coming Soon?), urged FDA employees not to resign prematurely. Despite the subsequent “fork in the road” buy-out offer from OPM, that still seems to be the predominate advice. See analysis and recommendations: here, here, here, and here.
When numbers come out, probably soon, it is important to remember that there are many different jobs, situations, and career goals among FDA employees. As I wrote in the original column, one segment, those who are “retirement-eligible,” may “have a different calculus than those with shorter tenures in the federal government. In many cases, they do not face a significant loss of income if they leave the agency. Presumably, they also skew older and may have less interest in waiting to see how things turn out.”
“An unknown is how much of the FDA workforce is retirement-eligible. Last Fall, an FDA official told me ‘15%.’ However, it was a casual conversation, and I do not know whether his answer was actual or speculative. At the 15% level, with perhaps 25% uptake, the impact of resignations by retirement-eligible individuals would be significant, but perhaps not overwhelming.”
As a point of reference: 15% of 18,000 employees is 2700. If the uptake is 25%, as I have speculated, that would be about seven hundred retirement-eligible employees taking buy-outs. The actual percentage might be higher or lower for this group of individuals. Of course, this does not predict any particular outcome for the remaining 85% of FDA employees.
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