Mutual mistrust: FDA staff wary as Høeg becomes top drug regulator

WASHINGTON — In 2008, Tracy Beth Høeg, then a resident physician and ultramarathon runner, expressed dismay at vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s denial of climate change.

“To stare such abundant scientific evidence in the face and make the blanket statement that you don’t believe it,” Høeg wrote in her blog . “What will the future of the planet be in the hands of someone who bases their decisions on belief rather than scientific evidence?”

Seventeen years later, as the top drug regulator in the United States, Høeg faces accusations from staff at the Food and Drug Administration of doing the very same thing.

On Monday, Høeg will become acting director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research . It’s a role where dispassionately reviewing complicated scientific evid