Washington — A former top National Institutes of Health leader who says she was removed from her position after a dispute with Trump administration officials detailed the internal clashes at the elite medical research agency Monday, and warned of an agenda that poses “a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety.”
Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo described in an exclusive interview with CBS News being silenced when she and her colleagues tried to oppose efforts pushed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to cancel vaccine research and clinical trials.
“Ultimately, we were disregarded,” said Marrazzo, who previously led the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID. “We became inconvenient.”
Marrazzo, who filed a whistleblower complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel last week alleging illegal retaliation, was placed on leave and reassigned in April. She had been in the role since August 2023, succeeding Dr. Anthony Fauci, who had served as NIAID director for nearly four decades, as well as chief medical adviser to former President Joe Biden.
“It was not unexpected,” Marrazzo said of her removal. “It was still a body blow.”
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Marrazzo said in her complaint that she “raised concerns” to agency leadership when Department of Health and Human Services and NIH leaders “pursued actions that not only directly undermined NIH’s goal of furthering medical research, but also constituted a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety,” while wasting funds by canceling research projects before findings could be implemented.
Many allegations in the complaint focus on Dr. Matthew Memoli, who served as acting NIH director earlier this year before moving to the health agency’s No. 2 post.
Marrazzo claims Memoli made statements downplaying the importance of vaccines that closely mirrored the views of Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic. In a series of meetings, Memoli allegedly argued that “vaccines are unnecessary if populations are healthy,” and that the NIH “should not focus on vaccines,” Marrazzo alleged in her complaint.
Asked by CBS News about interactions with people in positions similar to Memoli’s and those above him, Marrazzo said, “It was one of the hardest periods of my career,” and she and her colleagues who were involved “felt like we were sort of a voice in the wilderness.”
Marrazzo described a dispute about the importance of giving children the flu vaccine. She said she outlined her advocacy on two occasions for a universal flu vaccine that covered seasonal and avian flu, emphasizing the importance of continued investment in flu vaccine research.
“Both times that I presented this, Dr. Memoli made the point that, yes, it would be great. It would be nice to have a flu vaccine,” Marrazzo said. “But what was most important was to have children who were healthy and had a healthy immune system.”
Marrazzo said “it was a little bit like hearing the echo of, again, what Secretary Kennedy had been promulgating in terms of healthy kids.”
“It was extremely alarming,” she added.
An HHS spokesperson said in a statement that “NIH Deputy Director Dr. Matt Memoli emphasizes that vaccines are not interchangeable; each must be assessed on its own merits.”
“He remains fully aligned with this administration’s vaccine priorities and consistently champions gold-standard, evidence-based science,” the spokesperson said.
Over time, Marrazzo said things “became increasingly uncomfortable” because “we were persistent.”
“We didn’t back down,” she said.
At the same time, Marrazzo said “we started seeing people at meetings who were placed there from either the White House or from HHS.” She said “none of us really knew where these people came from.”
Marrazzo said one person confronted her about the agency she ran, which famously helped lead the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and “indicated to me that [it] was a target.” The official accused her team of doing unethical research.
Asked whether she thinks she’s being held responsible for actions taken by her predecessor, Fauci — who has faced years of criticism from Trump allies — and for research conducted by the agency before the pandemic, Marrazzo told CBS News, “I think it’s entirely possible.”
Marrazzo described discussing the administration’s priorities in meetings to CBS News, noting that it was a “very different” dynamic than when she began the role midway through the Biden administration. She said she had been hopeful that “intelligence would prevail” in a second Trump administration, noting that the president had “championed the work that led to the COVID vaccines,” among other things, during his first term.
Marrazzo objected to the leadership’s “censorship of scientific research and their subordination of scientific integrity to unscientific and unsupported policy preferences,” her complaint says, noting that she specifically objected to the administration’s “hostility towards vaccines and its abrupt cancellation of grants and clinical trials for political reasons.”
Senior federal health officials removed Marrazzo from her position on March 31, the complaint alleges, in “a blatant act of retaliation,” noting that she was placed on involuntary administrative leave and told she would be transferred to the Indian Health Service. In the complaint, Marrazzo wrote that she would like to be reinstated to her position if the Office of Special Counsel finds that a prohibited personnel practice took place.
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In recent weeks, Health Secretary Kennedy has faced scrutiny over the Trump administration’s policies on vaccines and the recent ouster of top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, another agency under the department’s umbrella. The Trump administration is attempting to oust CDC Director Susan Monarez, after she was confirmed by the Senate in late July, although her lawyers have pushed back on the legality of her firing.
Last week, Kennedy testified before the Senate Finance Committee. Kennedy refuted the claim that he told Monarez she had to resign if she refused to sign off on changes to the childhood vaccine schedule, saying he told her to resign after he asked, “‘are you a trustworthy person?’ and she said no.” At the hearing, several Democrats said Kennedy should resign or be fired, while a handful of Republicans also expressed concern about Kennedy’s moves at the department.
Marrazzo told CBS News that Kennedy is not qualified for his job and described him as “dangerous.”
“He’s dangerous because he ignores the evidence,” she said. “He appears to be driven by, a desire to satisfy a need to tear things down, and to discredit people who have dedicated their lives to evidence and to interpreting that evidence to further Americans’ health.”
Marrazzo encouraged people to find a source they trust when it comes to questions about their health, whether that’s their doctor or a nurse practitioner. Asked about Kennedy as a source, Marrazzo said, “I think the consensus is that he’s not trustworthy.”
Debra Katz, who represents Marrazzo and Dr. Kathleen Neuzil — the former director of the Fogarty International Center and NIH associate director for international research, who also filed a whistleblower complaint — said in a statement that the Trump administration “installed politically motivated leaders,” pointing to Kennedy, 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.”
