Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Two former top National Institutes of Health (NIH) officials say other officials illegally retaliated against them for raising concerns about how new leadership conducted themselves regarding vaccines, scientific research, and other areas.
Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, one of the officials, was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases until she was placed on leave in the spring.
Marrazzo said in a complaint to the Office of Special Counsel, released on Sept. 4, that she was reassigned in March to the Indian Health Service with no justification and shortly after left without duties or responsibilities.
Marrazzo claims she was reassigned and placed on leave after raising concerns in meetings about how Dr. Matthew Memoli, the NIH’s acting director at the time, and other new leaders were advancing priorities of the Trump administration.
During one meeting on Feb. 20, Marrazzo presented on influenza. She noted in one slide that there had been an abnormally high number of recent deaths among children from influenza in the United States.
Memoli “stated that while a vaccine was ‘fine,’ the number one way to prevent bad outcomes in a respiratory outbreak is to have a healthy population,” according to the complaint.
In another meeting shortly after, that included White House officials, Memoli “reiterated the Administration’s position that vaccines are unnecessary if populations are healthy,” the complaint says.
Dr. Kathleen Neuzil, the former director of the NIH’s Fogarty International Center, was alleged to have interjected to emphasize preventing influenza through vaccination.
In a third meeting, Memoli announced the NIH would stop funding some clinical trials, including trials at Columbia University, which the White House had accused of promoting anti-Semitism, and some foreign projects.
Marrazzo said she was concerned that cutting funds would result in trial participants losing access to necessary medical care. Memoli dismissed Marrazzo’s concerns and said that officials would end the trials in an orderly fashion.
Marrazzo said that she made disclosures of illegal activities, such as illegal cessation of trials, under the Whistleblower Protection Act and that the Office of Special Counsel should reinstate her as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Neuzil, in her complaint, made similar allegations and said that she was improperly forced to resign.
“Dr. Marrazzo and Dr. Neuzil came forward to educate the public about the serious public health dangers this country and indeed the world faces as a result of the politically motivated actions” of leaders at the NIH and Department of Health and Human Services, Debra Katz, a lawyer representing the officials, said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the NIH told The Epoch Times that Memoli, now the NIH’s deputy director, “emphasizes that vaccines are not interchangeable; each must be assessed on its own merits,” and that Memoli “remains fully aligned with this administration’s vaccine priorities and consistently champions gold-standard, evidence-based science.”
“On foreign funding, NIH is committed to supporting rigorous, credible science—not ideological or fringe projects,” the spokeswoman added.
“Assertions that reprioritization, reallocation, or cancellation of certain grants are ‘anti-science’ misrepresent NIH’s progress and often echo the grievances of former staff.”
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