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(Bloomberg) — Jeanne Marrazzo, Anthony Fauci’s successor at the National Institutes of Health, was placed on administrative leave starting on Tuesday and offered a reassignment to a different part of the US Department of Health and Human Services, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Marrazzo was asked to join HHS’s Indian Health Service division, which works to provide health services to American Indian and native Alaskan populations.
The reassignment comes as HHS is conducting mass layoffs of around 10,000 employees and restructuring the agency. While initial communications about the layoffs focused on addressing redundancy in human resources, information technology and communications staff, the agency has also removed senior leaders overseeing scientific research and drug review.
Marrazzo, an infectious disease expert, has led the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since the fall of 2023. Marrazzo was told on Monday by Thomas Nagy, HHS’s deputy assistant secretary for human resources, that she was being placed on paid administrative leave and that she should not report to work, according to an email viewed by Bloomberg.
The NIH is headquartered in Maryland and Marrazzo is based in the area, according to her LinkedIn profile. HHS proposed reassigning her to another location, suggesting various other states and regions including Alaska, New Mexico and Oklahoma. The agency requested feedback on the reassignment by 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
HHS also offered a reassignment to another official, Peter Stein, who oversaw the review of new drugs at the Food and Drug Administration, according to an email reviewed by Bloomberg. Stein, who directed the FDA’s Office of New Drugs, chose to resign instead of accepting the reassignment.
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