Hearing bombshell: Acting director of NIH's infectious disease institute is out

Source: Science

21 May 2026 4:00 PM ET


Jeffery Taubenberger, an influenza researcher named last year as acting director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has “stepped down from his position,” Senator Tammy Baldwin (D–WI) revealed at a Senate hearing today on the budget for its parent institution, the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The departure of Taubenberger, who is best known for resurrecting the sequence of the 1918 flu virus, comes amid a broad leadership shake-up at NIAID, which has long been under attack from President Donald Trump’s administration and Republicans in Congress who think it played a role in sparking the COVID-19 pandemic.

Those changes included the removal last year of NIAID’s director and the reassignments last week of three of its senior leaders—all of whom served under former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci, who became villainized by conservatives for his actions during the pandemic. At the hearing held by a Senate appropriations panel, however, NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya cited other reasons for Taubenberger’s unexpected exit.

He was asked by Senator Patty Murray (D–WA) about Taubenberger and the recent departures or reassignments of seven other top NIAID officials, at a time when there have been outbreaks of Ebola and hantavirus. “We need to have those people on the job right now, and this is, I think, deeply concerning to all of us,” said Murray, noting the Trump administration has also cut 1000 infectious disease research grants.

Read more: https://www.science.org/content/article/hearing-bombshell-acting-director-nih-s-infectious-disease-institute-out