Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. indicated last week that his department would downsize its workforce from 82,000 to 62,000 employees as part of a broader overhaul intended to maximize efficiency and save taxpayers money. Senior officials at the National Institutes of Health, a subordinate agency, were evidently not immune to this shake-up.
Insiders told Politico that Christine Grady, the wife of former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, was ousted Tuesday from her role as senior investigator at the NIH Clinical Center's Department of Bioethics. Kennedy allegedly signed off on the termination of Grady, who spearheaded research into the ethics of the U.S. pandemic response.
Fauci allies Clifford Lane, deputy director for clinical research and special projects at NIAID, and Emily Erbelding, director of the NIAID division of microbiology and infectious diseases, were reportedly also given the boot.
Several institute directors, including Fauci ally Jeanne Marrazzo — the NIAID director who claimed during the pandemic that "wearing a mask is very effective" and told people not to gather in groups, including at "gyms, bars and churches" — were among the officials linked to the government's development and rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines who were offered reassignments.
