The Dan Bongino Show
Is Something Big About To Go Down In Washington? - GUEST: Dr. Marty Makary | Episode 51
Tue, 27 May 2025
Corruption is being unearthed on all fronts in government and people are starting to pay the consequences. Also: FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary joins me in DC to discuss. An update from Deputy Director Dan https://x.com/FBIDDBongino/status/1926961051129508247 Congressman Andy Ogles confirms federal investigation into Nashville mayor’s office over illegal immigration https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/congressman-andy-ogles-confirms-federal-investigation-into-nashville-mayors-office-over-illegal-immigration Biden Aide Admits Staff Did ‘Undemocratic Things’ Because Trump Was ‘Existential Threat To Democracy’ https://dailycaller.com/2025/05/25/biden-aide-admits-staff-undemocratic-trump-threat-democracy/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the latest controversies surrounding the FDA?
It's messing with a kid's brain. There have been studies that show it's messing with the developing brain of a child, kind of suggesting these are attractive. Yes. You know, if you create these very attractive rainbow of colors, kids are drawn to them. And so—
You know, what we're doing is we're creating, we have a food system in the United States now that's 70% ultra-processed in the diet of kids. And thousands of ingredients that are banned in other countries that we have all over the U.S. food supply, including these petroleum-based dyes.
You know, the food companies make two versions of their cereal, one for Americans with the petroleum-based dyes and one for Canadians without and, you know, and Europeans without. Mm-hmm. And so what are we doing? We are drugging our nation's kids at scale for behavioral problems, for depression, for autoimmune diseases, for diabetes, for obesity.
And no one is talking about the ultra processed food. So we are we now have this Maha Commission report that is taking a hard look at that and sets our agenda.
How many drug companies also own food companies? So how many companies? So in other words, Are there companies that are generating this also processed food that are both selling the food product and then they're also on the other side selling drugs to resolve the issues that come with all of that?
I don't know of any that do both, but maybe you're thinking of Monsanto is owned by Bayer, the drug company. Monsanto that makes pesticides is owned by Bayer. Yeah. But I think a lot of people look at this stuff and they're just like, can't we just get back to whole foods, like things that grow out of the earth? So we're doing a lot on foods at the FDA.
Okay, so on that, I have all sorts of friends, including myself, who are obsessed with eating healthier these days, knowing what we know now. And one of the ways you assess when you go to the grocery store is that they have organic labels on food. And that's your job. FDA organic, it says on it. And so the big question is, are those legit? If something says FDA organic,
Is that some sort of seal of approval that your agency has given? And how do we tell the difference between something that's healthy or maybe this isn't exactly what it says it is?
USDA does a lot of the organic inspections and FDA also, but I think it's good to generally move towards less chemicals in the diet. I think it's just a good thing. I think it's good for kids. It's not a perfect label, but it does indicate that there are far less chemicals or sometimes even no chemicals in the food. Right. Okay.
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Chapter 2: Why are COVID vaccines being questioned for children?
Chapter 3: What role does the FDA play in public health crises?
Chapter 4: How is the Biden administration addressing corruption?
And also treating all of this like it's a matter of religious orthodoxy is just really alienating people. They're like, you know, people, they don't trust the system and for good reason because they're not treated like the adults that they are.
85% of healthcare workers did not get the COVID booster last season. Yes. What does that tell you?
That tells you everything. So yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. One in six healthcare workers, only one in six keep getting the COVID jab. Everybody else is not doing it. And I've seen some of the coverage of this, including your decision to back off on these recommendations for everybody to get COVID jabs all the time. And one of the critiques is like, well, I saw Stat News wrote about it.
They were like, Well, one in six health care workers are getting the COVID jabs, and then they get some expert to respond. And they're like, well, that's basically like science by public opinion polling. That's not the way we should do it. Saying even health care professionals are being ridiculous.
That's what they're saying. It's always the same couple doctors that these news outlets are citing. It's their go-to people. These are the same folks that misled us during COVID. And so – No, look, I think we've got to rebuild public trust. The way you do that is being incredibly honest. We're being very transparent with everything we're doing at the FDA.
Dr. Vinay Prasad and I just published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week our framework of how we see COVID vaccine regulation, basically saying we've got to get back to both gold standard science and common sense. We've got to be practical. It's been four years since we've had randomized trials in humans that showed an efficacy. It was a very different virus then. It was
a better match with the circulating virus. There was low natural immunity in the population. And we learned that some of that effect was transient. That is, your baseline risk came back to almost the baseline level after a transient period. We cannot be blind. We have to use a scientific approach. And we do that for every other drug at the FDA, right?
Cures for cancer, you know, and it's for certain types of cancer, that is, not all cancer. And why does it take 10 years for a drug to come to market in the United States? We've got to ask these big questions. So we're streamlining the process every place we can.
Okay. So let's talk about drugs. And the president just said recently he announced that he doesn't want drug prices to be like berserk here in the United States and then super cheap in other countries for these American drugs. He said, it's totally unfair. And I agree because it seems to me that if the price is out of control here, all we're doing is we are subsidizing. So American drug users
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Chapter 5: What does Dr. Marty Makary say about animal testing?
So they got to have a healthy diet and they've got to have a lot of recess. Run them. Just get the energy out. You want them to focus? Let them get that energy out. They're boys. They're supposed to run.
Yes. Yes.
I think. I think. So what are the chances of success here? I mean, this is the most unique thing. group of health professionals I've ever seen assembled in an administration. I'm shocked by it. I'm overjoyed by it. I'm glad you're there. I'm glad we got Dr. Casey Means showing up. I'm glad HHS Secretary RFK Jr. is there. This seems like a once in a lifetime opportunity.
What are you guys going to do with it?
Look, we have to do everything we can because the path we're on is totally unsustainable. You know, health care is the biggest part of the federal budget, and it's not just Medicare and Medicaid. The Defense Department has its own health care system. Half of Social Security checks now are being used for health care expenses from uncovered services and co-pays and co-insurance.
It is consuming our U.S. economy. It is an underlying problem. problem that's burdening businesses and the competitiveness of the United States and individuals. And so we have to tackle this by not just talking about the issues around the periphery, like different ways to pay for things in healthcare. We have got to talk about the health of the population.
So on the cost side, here's something that I would love to see, and I'm sure you'd want to see it too. I want to see math to tell me how much money we can save if we make the population healthier. because that's a missing component to the debate that always kind of drives me crazy. I ask sometimes like, you know, economics guys, conservative politics, economics guys, like, well, wait a second.
We're spending all this money on healthcare. In Washington, the only debate is, do we spend more on healthcare? Do we spend less on healthcare? It's always this stupid debate instead of how do we get a healthier population that doesn't require all of these drugs. That's right. And so the question I have is, let's just say we were able to decrease chronic disease by 10% in the United States.
What does that mean in terms of dollars? Yeah. What would that number be? And maybe you are equipped with the answer to that today. But I feel like in this debate, I keep kind of wondering what the answer to that is, because if we had a healthier population, that seems to me it could go a very long way towards getting our fiscal house in order as well.
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