The FDA has put former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb’s official agency Twitter account on ice, with visitors to @SGottliebFDA seeing a Twitter message saying that the account doesn’t exist.
“This was a logistical decision made at the staff level that is in compliance with all applicable law,” FDA said in a statement emailed to MassDevice. “We are grateful to Dr. Gottlieb for increasing FDA visibility through Twitter and we will continue to use social media as a key vehicle to communicate public health information.”
Gottlieb’s archived tweets are now available for download as an HTML file from FDA’s website.
Dr. Stephen Hahn — confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the new FDA commissioner in early December — as of today had more than 45,000 followers for the new @SteveFDA account.
Gottlieb from 2017 until his resignation in April was an active Twitter user, using the social media site to better communicate priorities including dealing with opioid addiction and e-cigarettes. Now a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a partner at venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates, Gottlieb has a @ScottGottliebMD account with more than 61,000 followers.