\n<\/p>\n
Two former National Institutes of Health leaders are alleging the agency illegally put them on leave in April for speaking up against research grant cancellations and antivaccine efforts. <\/p>\n
Jeanne Marrazzo, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Kathleen Neuzil, former director of the NIH\u2019s Fogarty International Center and former associate director for international research, filed complaints Thursday with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, seeking reinstatement. They allege they faced retaliation for whistleblowing and other protected activity. <\/p>\n
Marrazzo \u201cobjected to the Administration\u2019s hostility towards vaccines and its abrupt cancellation of grants and clinical trials for political reasons,\u201d according to her complaint. Neuzil further objected to the administration\u2019s \u201ccancellation of grants based on anti\u2013South Africa hostility and its incorrect belief that certain grants advanced \u2018diversity, equity, and inclusion,\u2019\u201d her complaint stated. <\/p>\n
They both specifically allege that Matthew Memoli\u2014who was NIH\u2019s acting director after Trump returned to power and is now NIH\u2019s principal deputy director\u2014retaliated against them. An NIH spokesperson said in an email Friday that Memoli emphasizes that each vaccine \u201cmust be\u00a0assessed on its own merits.\u201d <\/p>\n
The spokesperson also wrote that \u201cassertions that reprioritization, reallocation, or cancellation of certain grants are \u2018anti-science\u2019 misrepresent NIH\u2019s progress and often\u00a0echo the\u00a0grievances of former staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Debra S. Katz, an attorney representing the complainants, said in a news release that the \u201cTrump administration installed politically motivated leaders\u2014most notably Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr., who immediately acted to stifle scientific inquiry, halt crucial research and retaliate against those, like Drs. Marrazzo and Neuzil, who refused to disavow the overwhelming body of evidence showing that vaccines are safe and effective.\u201d <\/p>\n
But Katz said the Office of Special Counsel, which is their only route for legal relief, \u201chas been politically compromised to such an extent that it will most certainly refuse to act against Trump appointees.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two former National Institutes of Health leaders are alleging the agency illegally put them on leave in April for speaking up against research grant cancellations and antivaccine efforts. Jeanne Marrazzo, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Kathleen Neuzil, former director of the NIH\u2019s Fogarty International Center and former associate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[8809,807,405,12184,12235],"class_list":{"0":"post-19920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-allege","9":"tag-leaders","10":"tag-nih","11":"tag-retaliation","12":"tag-whistleblowing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}