Head of NIH’s Infectious Disease Institute Steps Down: Senator

The acting director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has stepped down, a senator said on April 21.

“The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was slated to testify, but stepped down from his position,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said at the opening of a hearing with other National Institutes of Health (NIH) leaders, including NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.

Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger had been acting NIAID director since April 2025.

“Other top officials at NIAID have also reportedly been reassigned and forced out of their positions in the midst of an emerging Ebola outbreak. We have a leadership vacuum at the world’s premier infectious disease institute, and across our health agencies, this is of great concern,” Baldwin added.

There is an Ebola outbreak in Congo that has been growing in recent days.

The Department of Health and Human Services, the NIH’s parent agency, did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Bhattacharya, during the hearing, did not comment specifically on Taubenberger but said that he has placed emphasis on shifting NIAID away from biodefense work.

“We’ve shifted the focus of NIAID to address diseases and conditions that people actually have, including the hantavirus, including Ebola, and so much else,” Bhattacharya said.

Bhattacharya also said that NIAID is emphasizing infectious diseases, allergy, and immunology.

In a January paper, Bhattacharya and Taubenberger said that the NIAID’s new vision would refocus on HIV and immunological and infectious diseases, “opening wider areas for research into the challenges most relevant to keeping Americans healthy today.”

Bhattacharya told senators that the shift in priorities “means we need some new leadership” at NIAID. Some leaders were removed and offered reassignment elsewhere within the agency, he said.

Bhattacharya was responding to what Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said she had heard—that at least eight of the top 10 officials at NIAID were no longer in their roles, including the institute’s director and its director for infectious diseases.

“We need to have those people on the job right now, and this is, I think, deeply concerning to all of us,” Murray said.

Taubenberger had released a statement on May 14 celebrating NIH-funded research that identified human antibodies targeting the measles virus, which they said could lead to the development of measles treatments.

Taubenberger, who joined the NIAID in 2006, is still listed on the NIAID website as its acting director as of May 21. The page was last updated on April 28, 2025.

Dr. Anthony Fauci led NIAID for decades. He retired in 2022. Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo replaced him; she left the government early in President Donald Trump’s second term.