{"id":366,"date":"2025-02-12T20:19:17","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T20:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/02\/12\/top-n-i-h-official-abruptly-resigns-as-trump-orders-deep-cuts-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2025-02-12T20:19:17","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T20:19:17","slug":"top-n-i-h-official-abruptly-resigns-as-trump-orders-deep-cuts-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2025\/02\/12\/top-n-i-h-official-abruptly-resigns-as-trump-orders-deep-cuts-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Top N.I.H. Official Abruptly Resigns as Trump Orders Deep Cuts &#8211; The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"site-content\">\n<article id=\"story\">\n<div id=\"top-wrapper\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/#after-top\">SKIP ADVERTISEMENT<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Dr. Lawrence Tabak, the No. 2 official at the National Institutes of Health, did not give a reason for his departure.<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"imageblock-wrapper\">\n<figure aria-label=\"media\" role=\"group\">\n<div data-testid=\"imageContainer-children-Image\"><picture><source media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 3),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 3dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 288dpi)\" ><source media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 2),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 2dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 192dpi)\" ><source media=\"(max-width: 599px) and (min-device-pixel-ratio: 1),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 1dppx),(max-width: 599px) and (min-resolution: 96dpi)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak, gesturing with his hands raised above a sheaf of papers when he testified before a House panel last year. A microphone and water bottle are on the table before him. \" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/12\/multimedia\/12trump-news-nih-departure-zlkj\/12trump-news-nih-departure-zlkj-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&#038;auto=webp&#038;disable=upscale\"   decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\"><\/picture><\/div><figcaption data-testid=\"photoviewer-children-ImageCaption\"><span>Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak, who resigned from the National Institutes of Health, has weathered past presidential transitions.<\/span><span><span>Credit&#8230;<\/span><span><span aria-hidden=\"false\">Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><time datetime=\"2025-02-12T14:22:32-05:00\"><span>Feb. 12, 2025<\/span><span>Updated <span>2:22 p.m. ET<\/span><\/span><\/time><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section name=\"articleBody\">\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<p>The No. 2 official at the National Institutes of Health abruptly resigned and retired from government service on Tuesday, in another sign that the Trump administration is reshaping the nation\u2019s public health and biomedical research institutions.<\/p>\n<p>The official, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nih.gov\/about-nih\/what-we-do\/nih-almanac\/lawrence-tabak-dds-phd\" title rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak<\/a>, a dentist and researcher, was long considered a steadying force and had weathered past presidential transitions. In a letter that Dr. Tabak sent to colleagues on Tuesday, he did not give a reason for his decision. One person familiar with the decision said Dr. Tabak had been confronted with a reassignment that he viewed as unacceptable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has been an enormous privilege to work with each of you (and your predecessors) to support and further the critical NIH mission,\u201d Dr. Tabak wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Tabak resigned at a turbulent time for the institutes, the nation\u2019s premier biomedical research industry, composed of 27 separate institutes and centers that study and develop treatments for diseases like cancer and heart conditions as well as infectious diseases like AIDS and Covid. The N.I.H. spends roughly $48 billion a year on medical research, much of it in grants to medical centers, universities and hospitals across the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<p>President Trump\u2019s decision to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/07\/us\/politics\/medical-research-funding-cuts-university-budgets.html\" title>slash billions of dollars in N.I.H. grant funding<\/a> has sparked a bitter court battle. And the Senate on Wednesday voted to advance the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic and the president\u2019s pick for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the N.I.H.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Kennedy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/11\/15\/us\/politics\/rfk-jr-hhs-health-goals.html\" title>has said he would cut 600 N.I.H. jobs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The N.I.H. said it would soon have a statement about Dr. Tabak\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Tabak was not well-known to the public. But his decision to leave is surprising, and destabilizing for an agency that is on the political hot seat. He was viewed as someone who could work across party lines; he had survived the presidential turnovers of both parties and had indicated he expected to stay on after Mr. Trump was elected in November.<\/p>\n<p>Ordinarily, Dr. Tabak would have ascended to the job of acting N.I.H. director during the transition from one administration to the next. 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, as did Mr. Kennedy.<\/p>\n<p>As acting director of the N.I.H. last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/02\/08\/us\/politics\/house-covid-lab-leak.html\" title>Dr. Tabak pushed back<\/a> against Republicans\u2019 assertions that a lab leak stemming from U.S. taxpayer-funded research might have caused the coronavirus pandemic. He told lawmakers that viruses being studied at a laboratory in Wuhan, China, bore no resemblance to the one that set off the world\u2019s worst public health crisis in a century.<\/p>\n<p>Ellen Barry contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div>\n<p>Sheryl Gay Stolberg covers health policy for The Times from Washington. A former congressional and White House correspondent, she focuses on the intersection of health policy and politics.<span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/sheryl-gay-stolberg\">More about Sheryl Gay Stolberg<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"bottom-wrapper\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/#after-bottom\">SKIP ADVERTISEMENT<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Dr. Lawrence Tabak, the No. 2 official at the National Institutes of Health, did not give a reason for his departure. Dr. Lawrence A. Tabak, who resigned from the National Institutes of Health, has weathered past presidential transitions.Credit&#8230;Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images Feb. 12, 2025Updated 2:22 p.m. ET The No. 2 official at the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}