RFK Jr. hasn’t been in office a week yet, and we’re already seeing the fruits of his tenure manifest in multiple ways.
First up, we have reports of a bit of delicious self-purging going on at the NIH as two of the five seconds-in-command have “abruptly” left in a span of just two days, as of February 13th .
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Via StatNews (emphasis added):
Michael Lauer, deputy director of the National Institutes of Health’s extramural research, will leave the agency at the end of the week.
News of Lauer’s departure comes one day after Lawrence Tabak, the agency’s longtime second-in-command, retired, a move several agency sources described as “sudden” and “abrupt.”
The NIH is led by one agency director and five deputies. With Lauer’s departure, two of those deputies have left in as many days.
It’s perhaps a bit disappointing that RFK Jr. didn’t just summarily axe all five and all of their capos in the first hour of his HHS takeover, but let’s hope he gets to them in due time.
As “extramural” research director, Lauer was in charge of funneling public money into the hands of researchers across the country for projects ranging in legitimacy from applaudable to fraudulent — a spigot that has since been turned off by the Trump administration and presumably has put massive institutional strain on people like him.
Related: Brand-New NIH Union vs. Trump: The Funding Freeze Showdown
In that role, Lauer was a COVID crackdown enthusiast from the start — a company man through and through. His will surely be missed by his also-soon-to-be-gone former colleagues and handful of suburban wine moms who put Fauci shrines on their lawns, but by no one else.
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As far as I’m aware, no blanket immunity for a ten-year period starting in 2014 was offered to Lauer by the outgoing Brandon regime like it was to Tony Fauci — so hopefully Trump can sic Kash Patel on this guy before he slips the proverbial noose.
Meanwhile, in a story that will surely tug at your heartstrings, over at the CDC — which, if it’s possible, is even more diseased than NIH — panic has set in among staff while moral has “plummeted.”
Via NPR (emphasis added):
Staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are on edge this week, as rumors of job cuts circulate. Employees are bracing for a significant reduction in the work force that appears to be targeting those with the fewest worker protections…
CDC staff who've gone through other administration changes say the transition has been unlike anything they've experienced before, with "fewer meetings, fewer requests for information," and little attempt to understand how things work…
"It is extremely difficult and traumatizing for federal staff to see reporting on this as if it is doable and legal," the former employee who requested anonymity told NPR.
"The CDC staff I know and have worked with for more than 25 years are dedicated public servants and don't deserve to be mistreated in this way."
