Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired a top official with the National Institutes of Health who blew the whistle on internal in the early months of the Trump administration.
On Wednesday, Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo received a letter from Kennedy — which CBS News reviewed — informing her that her role leading NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID, had been terminated. He did not cite a cause beyond his constitutional authority to do so. Last month, in an exclusive interview with CBS News, Marrazzo said she had been silenced when she and her colleagues pushed back against NIH officials appointed by President Trump who questioned the importance of childhood flu vaccines and canceled long-running clinical trials.
"My termination, unfortunately, shows that the leaders of HHS and the National Institutes of Health do not share my commitment to scientific integrity and public health," Marrazzo wrote in a statement following her firing. "Congress must act to protect scientific research from those who would serve political interests first."
Marrazzo had been in her role since August 2023, succeeding Dr. Anthony Fauci, who had served as NIAID director for nearly four decades. She was put on indefinite leave in March and filed a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in September, alleging illegal retaliation. In a statement, Marrazzo's attorney alleged her firing is further "retaliation for her protected whistleblower...
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