Rantz: Sen. Patty Murray tried to call out FDA nominee, gets schooled instead

​In the realm of public health, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) will have you believe she thinks consistency and transparency are paramount. But during a committee hearing with the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) director nominee, the “sad-looking lady from Washington” again made a fool of herself.

During Murray’s questioning of Dr. Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor, Murray criticized the cancellation of an FDA advisory committee meeting under the Trump administration to discuss next season’s influenza vaccines. It’s unclear why the meeting was postponed, though it’s become little more than a simple adoption of the recommendation from the Global Influenza Programme.

The Senator was unhappy that Makary wouldn’t commit to reconvening, instead saying he would “reevaluate which topics deserve a convening of the advisory committee members on (Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee) and which may not require a convening.” He was not involved in the decision to postpone the meeting.

More from Jason Rantz: City of Seattle targets business trying to stop shoplifting, not the criminals

Sen. Patty Murray gets schooled

Murray called the meeting postponement “unprecedented and dangerous.”

But is it? Murray should know: she wasn’t bothered that under the Joe Biden administration it had actually canceled an important COVID-19 booster vaccine meeting and, instead, automatically recommended healthy Americans take more unnecessary boosters without even a discussion on the science or need.

“Well, you can ask the Biden administration that chose not to convene the committee meeting for the COVID vaccine booster,” Makary said when Murray claimed to be “very unclear” as to why the FDA director nominee would need to re-evaluate the committee.

Makary also noted that “there, in my opinion, was a huge difference between requiring every 12-year-old girl in America to take an eighth COVID booster shot versus rubber stamping a recommendation from the (International Global Influenza Programme) group, which it has done seven out of the last seven years.”

More from Jason Rantz: Seattle mayoral candidate ditches liberalism to challenge Harrell as a Republican

The striking double standard

In 2021, the Biden administration authorized COVID-19 booster shots for Americans without convening the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC). The FDA justified this decision by stating that previous extensive discussions had occurred and that the booster requests did not raise new questions necessitating further deliberation.

This decision came months after then-president Joe Biden lied to the American people, claiming, “If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized, you’re not going to be in the IC unit, and you’re not going to die.” One could argue they needed to further discuss their non-science-based recommendation?

Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and committee member, raised concerns at the time.

“We’re being asked to approve this as a three-dose vaccine for people 16 years of age and older, without any clear evidence if the third dose for a younger person when compared to an elderly person is of value.”​

More from Rantz: Don’t buy into the tariff fearmongering. Boeing is mostly immune

Concern about health? No. Sen. Patty Murray looks to score political points

When the vaccine committee was skipped, resulting in an unnecessary booster being pushed (and, in some cases, effectively forced) on Americans, Senator Murray did not publicly challenge the administration’s decision to bypass the advisory committee. In fact, after Makary pointed out the skipped vaccine committee point, Murray defended the move.

“In 2022, I had confidence that our public health agencies were following the latest science and listening to public health experts. I do not have that confidence now,” she explained to Fox News Digital.

If Senator Murray had confidence in the public health agencies that knowingly falsely claimed the COVID-19 vaccine would stop the spread, yet dismisses the judgment of the well-regarded Dr. Makary, the issue lies with her, not the current administration.

Her inconsistent responses reveal a bias driven by political allegiance rather than a genuine commitment to procedural integrity or public well-being. This kind of double standard undermines trust in our health institutions — trust she exploits only when it serves her political agenda.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz on X, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.

Follow @https://twitter.com/jasonrantz