Christine Grady, a senior bioethicist at the National Institutes of Health who is married to Dr. Anthony Fauci, was fired by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Federal officials who were familiar with the most recent round of layoffs said that Grady was fired in part because she didn’t look into the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic started with a lab leak in Wuhan. A spokesperson for HHS told the media that the cut was part of a larger plan at NIH to focus less on getting ready for pandemics and more on more immediate issues.
Grady wasn’t the only bioethicist who was fired. Her work looks at how likely it is that future pandemics will happen. Others were given jobs in Alaska, Montana, Minnesota, or other remote areas that were hundreds or even thousands of miles from where they lived. It’s not clear if Grady was also given a similar offer.
While Grady’s coworkers praised her work, they also knew that her marriage to Fauci—a political opponent of President Trump—made it harder for her to stay at the agency.
One source told the Daily Caller Grady is “a good person with a major conflict of interest.”
“One of the problems when the cover-up was going on of the Wuhan lab leak, that whole fiasco, was that they were not listening to anyone giving ethics advice,” the official said. “If they had had someone at the table with knowledge of this, they would have said: ‘Hey, do you want to play it this way, or be more transparent?’ Someone could have raised the question.”
“That’s something Christine Grady could have, or should have, done,” the official continued. “She wasn’t able to do it because she was Fauci’s wife.”
“Maybe they had discussions in private about what was going on,” the official said. “She was placed in a conflicted role because of that.”
Last month, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis addressed former President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci, suggesting that the move could backfire on the former COVID czar.
During a press conference, DeSantis reflected on the situation after a reporter pointed out that while Fauci is shielded from federal prosecution, he could still face legal action at the state level.
DeSantis acknowledged the “good” question before turning attention to recent revelations, including findings from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“I don’t know if you saw this Elon Musk stuff,” DeSantis began. “They identified 180,000 for a commemoration of Fauci at NIH headquarters. What the hell are they commemorating about Fauci? I mean, at best, you can say, you know, you have the Super Bowl of public health, a pandemic, and he totally botched it. That’s the best you can say, without even getting involved in gain of function, research and all the things that went into that treachery, how you can venerate him.”
“At best, you have to admit he got it wrong when this country was looking for leadership. He was on TV … I’ve never seen anyone do more TV interviews,” he added. The GOP governor then quipped: “I was like, why isn’t he looking at the data? And I was like, because he’s always giving interviews. That’s why he’s not looking at the data.”
Regarding Biden’s pardon, DeSantis said that actually drew more scrutiny on Fauci. “But the issue — so Biden did a preemptive pardon of him, which is odd, because, you know, if he didn’t do anything wrong. So the question is, what about a state action? And I think the pardon made it more likely that states are going to look into it,” said the governor.
He went on to say that had Biden not pardoned Fauci, then state attorneys general would likely not have made any effort to investigate the former top immunologist.
“I do think had Biden not pardoned him, I don’t think you would have seen the states really do this,” said DeSantis.
“I think they would have deferred to the Trump administration,” DeSantis said. “The reason why this could backfire on Fauci is because even if the, say, Biden didn’t pardon him, if the Trump administration had pursued charges against Fauci in say, DC, you’re not going to prosecute someone from the swamp. If the jury is comprised of the swamp, they will acquit. They protect the swamp.”
He then concluded: “If you start looking at some of these other states, those jury pools gonna be a lot different potentially. So I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it. I do think that it’s very possible that the new Ag in Florida looks and pursues this type of investigation, but I would also anticipate some other states would also do it, so it may end up boomeranging against Fauci. Biden intended to shield him from accountability, that it may have actually sparked state-based efforts to ensure his accountability.”