LOL: Politico Is So Sad That Anthony Fauci's Wife and His Other Allies Just Got Fired from NIH

As Black Conservative Perspective would say, they're all boo-hoo whinin' and cryin'.

As an anti-vaccine activist, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spent years attacking Anthony Fauci and sowing doubts about the successful effort he led to develop a Covid vaccine.

As HHS secretary, he's exacting his revenge.

Kennedy on Tuesday fired Fauci's wife, Christine Grady, and reassigned at least three of Fauci's longtime colleagues at the National Institutes of Health, as part of a purge of senior officials involved in the government's development and distribution of the Covid vaccine, eight people familiar with the matter said.

BRB, organizing a Giggle Party

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The removals, which came amid a mass reduction in force across the health department, effectively gutted leadership at the NIH's infectious disease office and key parts of the Food and Drug Administration, stunning agency employees and leaving the broader public health community in disbelief.

"It's like a Fauci fixation," said Dr. Eric Topol, a public health expert and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. "So many of these people are just dedicated, they really want to do good and now they're losing their jobs senselessly."

POLITICO spoke to 11 people for this story, many of whom were granted anonymity for fear of retribution.

LOL. So brave.

Several NIH leaders were told to accept reassignment to outposts in states like Alaska or leave the federal government altogether, according to three people familiar with the matter. One of them was Jeanne Marrazzo, who succeeded Fauci at NIAID.

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In a post on X, Kennedy called the firings a "difficult moment" but insisted that HHS needed an overhaul.

"The reality is clear: what we've been doing isn't working," he wrote. "HHS needs to be recalibrated to emphasize prevention, not just sick care."

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Peter Stein, who heads the FDA Office of New Drugs that aided work on Covid vaccines and treatments, was fired on Tuesday amid a gutting of his office's policy shop. His removal came just days after Kennedy and new FDA Commissioner Marty Makary agreed to force out top vaccine regulator Peter Marks, who played a central role in creating the Operation Warp Speed initiative that delivered the Covid vaccine in record time. Marks' deputy, Julie Tierney, was also put on leave on Tuesday.

The abrupt house-cleaning -- delivered to officials in early-morning messages -- generated near-universal dismay across the public health landscape on Tuesday. And while Kennedy and his allies have argued that the overhaul is necessary to restore trust in HHS, the removals fueled suspicion among Fauci's supporters that Kennedy was using the mass firings to rid the department of top Covid-era scientists and others close to Fauci.

Really? Is that your suspicion?

In addition to purging leadership at NIH and FDA, Kennedy ordered cuts to a range of divisions focused on HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases -- the area where Fauci first gained prominence as a leader of the government's response to the AIDS epidemic. The moves follow a crackdown already underway on grants related to Covid and vaccine hesitancy.

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Makary and new NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya are also Fauci critics who gained prominence as opponents of the government's Covid response, with Bhattacharya at one point calling Fauci's role during Covid a "propaganda campaign." They have both vowed to overhaul the agencies and refocus public health priorities.

In a message to NIH staff on Tuesday, Bhattacharya wrote that he would "foster an environment where varied perspectives are valued and encouraged at NIH and the broader scientific community" -- a pointed contrast to his accusations that Fauci and his allies shut down dissent at the agency.

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"This is the darkest day that I've had in 50 years of public health," said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, who called reassigning Marrazzo and others to far-flung locales "almost a way of punishing them for what they have done."

Cry moar, commie thugs and gaslighters.

Thanks to Jay in PA.

posted by Ace at 03:20 PM

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