The No. 2 officer at the National Institutes of Health has abruptly resigned on Tuesday and retired by the public service, in another sign that the Trump governance reforms public health and biomedical research institutions of the nation.
The civil servant, Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak, a dentist and researcher, has long been considered a permanent force and had passed presidential transitions. In a letter that Dr. Tobacco sent to colleagues on Tuesday, he gave no reason for his decision. One person who was familiar with the decision said that Dr. Tobacco was confronted with a repeater that he considered unacceptable.
“It has been a huge privilege to work with each of you (and your predecessors) to support and promote the critical NIH mission,” wrote Dr. Tobacco.
Dr. Tabak resigned at a turbulent time for the institutions, the most important biomedical research industry of the country, consisting of 27 individual institutions and centers that study and develop treatments for diseases such as cancer and heart disease, as well as infectious diseases such as AIDS and COVID. The NIH spends around $ 48 billion a year on medical research, much of it in subsidies to medical centers, universities and hospitals throughout the country.
President Trump's decision to defeat billions of dollars in NIH subsidy financing has fueled a bitter court. And the Senate voted on Wednesday for the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to promote, a vaccine skeptic and the president's choice for secretary of the Ministry of Health and Human Services, who supervises the NIH
Mr. Kennedy said that he would reduce 600 NIH jobs.
The NIH said it would soon have a statement about Dr.'s decision. Tobacco.
Dr. Tobacco was not known to the public. But his decision to leave is surprising and destabilizing in front of an agency on the political hot seat. He was seen as someone who could work on festive lines; He had survived the presidential turnover of both parties and had indicated that he was expected to stay after Mr Trump had been chosen in November.
Usually Dr. Tobacco has risen to the task of the actions of NIH director during the transition from one administration to another. But the Trump administration installed another researcher, Matthew Memoli of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as acting director. Dr. Memoli criticized Covid vaccine mandates, just like Mr Kennedy.
As acting director of the NIH last year, Dr. Tobacco back against the claims of the Republicans that a laboratory leak that results from the American taxpayer-funded investigation could have caused the coronavirus pandemic. He told the legislators that viruses that were studied in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, did not like those who showed the worst crisis for public health in the world in a century.
Ellen Barry contributed reporting.
