Jeanne Marrazzo, M.D., the former director of the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), was fired from her position three weeks after filing a whistleblower complaint, according to an Oct. 1 statement from Marrazzo’s legal team.
Marrazzo and Kathleen Neuzil, M.D., former director of the NIH’s Fogarty International Center, each filed complaints with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel on Sept. 4 alleging that they faced retaliatory actions for expressing concerns about the potential public health consequences of agency actions, like terminating grant funding and clinical trials and opposing vaccines.
Twenty-two days after filing her complaint, Marrazzo was fired by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., her lawyer said. The former NIAID director had been on administrative leave since Apr. 1, awaiting a supposed reassignment to the Indian Health Service that never came. Neuzil has also been on administrative leave since April.
“The Trump administration terminated Dr. Marrazzo for her advocacy on behalf of critical health research and for her support of the overwhelming body of evidence that shows vaccines are safe and effective,” Marrazzo’s lawyer Debra Katz said in the statement. “With her firing, there is no doubt she was removed from her position as director of NIAID in retaliation for her protected whistleblower activity.”
A spokesperson for the agency rebuffed the claims.
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