By ERIN SCHUMAKER and RUTH READER
09/08/2025 02:51 PM EDT
Whistleblower complaints filed last week by former National Institutes of Health officials offer the clearest picture yet of how agency leadership is approaching vaccines and infectious diseases under President Donald Trump.
Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Kathleen Neuzil, former director of the Fogarty International Center, allege in complaints filed with the Office of Special Counsel that they were illegally forced out of their roles in April.
The directors allege they were placed on involuntary administrative leave in retaliation for pushing back against the administration’s “hostility towards vaccines and its abrupt cancellation of grants and clinical trials for political reasons,” according to Marrazzo’s complaint.
After being placed on leave, Marrazzo and Neuzil say they were directed not to work and told they would be reassigned to the Indian Health Service.
Marrazzo and Neuzil allege that they butted heads with NIH Principal Deputy Director Matt Memoli, who Trump appointed as acting agency director while Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was going through the confirmation process, over the administration’s position on vaccines.
In one incident detailed in Marrazzo’s complaint, she said Memoli “repeated that there is nothing more important than making sure children are healthy to begin with and...
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