{"id":812949,"date":"2026-05-21T20:13:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T20:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/812949\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T20:13:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T20:13:19","slug":"acting-head-of-nihs-infectious-disease-institute-reported-to-have-stepped-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/812949\/","title":{"rendered":"Acting head of NIH\u2019s infectious disease institute reported to have stepped down"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"author-bio\">Helen Branswell covers issues broadly related to infectious diseases, including outbreaks, preparedness, research, and vaccine development. Follow her on <a href=\"https:\/\/scicomm.xyz\/@HelenBranswell\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mastodon<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/helenbranswell.bsky.social\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bluesky<\/a>. You can reach Helen on Signal at hbranswell.01.<\/p>\n<p>Yet another leadership position at the National Institutes of Health appears to be vacant. Jeffery Taubenberger, who has been serving as acting head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has stepped down, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) revealed Thursday during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.<\/p>\n<p>It was unclear when Taubenberger, who has been serving in the role since April 2025, stepped down, or why, though there has been chatter in infectious diseases research circles that\u00a0Taubenberger had stepped down about two weeks ago. STAT has asked the Department of Health and Human Services about his status several times; those queries have gone unanswered and unacknowledged.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Staff at NIAID have not been informed, though rumors were starting to make the rounds earlier this week, one employee told STAT, speaking on the condition of anonymity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-text\">STAT+ Exclusive Story<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-login\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"restricted-content-breaker-bg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/stat-plus-breaker-bg.png\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"stat-plus-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/wp-content\/themes\/stat\/images\/stat-plus-logo-white.svg\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tThis article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tUnlock this article \u2014 plus daily intelligence on Capitol Hill and the life sciences industry \u2014 by subscribing to STAT+.<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-breaker-wrapper-cta mobile\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta mobile\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tIndividual plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tGroup plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button view-all\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker view all plans\" aria-label=\"View All Plans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">View All Plans<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTo read the rest of this story subscribe to STAT+.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button restricted-button\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker subscribe cta 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Helen Branswell covers issues broadly related to infectious diseases, including outbreaks, preparedness, research, and vaccine development. Follow her&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":812950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[327,210,6454,67476,154,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-812949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-congress","tag-health","tag-infectious-diseases","tag-nih","tag-stat","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116614398222564887","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}