High-level officials at the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration were placed on leave.
Top officials inside the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have been placed on leave, including Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, who succeeded Dr. Anthony Fauci as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as HHS enacts a major reorganization and workforce reduction.
Automated emails from Marrazzo and several other officials within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on April 3 confirmed they’re on leave.
That includes Dr. Diana Bianchi, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and Vence L. Bonham Jr., acting deputy director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, who had been the agency’s top official following the departure of its director.
Marrazzo became director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 2023, about nine months after Fauci stepped down. Bianchi has been in her position since 2016. Bonham has been with the research institute since at least 2005, according to his publications.
Julia Tierney, a top official at the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, is also on leave, according to an automated missive, as is Dr. Peter Stein, director of the FDA’s Office of New Drugs, he told The Epoch Times in an email.
The center reviews vaccines while the office oversees the safety and efficacy of drugs.
The officials were still listed on the websites of their agencies on Thursday as holding their positions.
The National Human Genome Research Institute and Bonham did not respond to inquiries. An assistant for Bianchi and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, one of the most well-known NIH divisions due to Fauci’s frequent appearances during the COVID-19 pandemic, referred requests for comment to the NIH. An NIH spokesperson referred inquiries to HHS which declined to comment on the officials’ employment status.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced in late March that HHS would ax 10,000 jobs and restructure. Kennedy said the moves were being made to make HHS more efficient and effective.
Terminations started this week and included staffers who handled Freedom of Information Act requests.
By Zachary Stieber
