(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Last week, the New York Times revealed that numerous top government health officials have been reassigned to regional offices of the Indian Health Service, which provides federal health services to Native Americans and Alaska Natives. The reassigned officials include none other than former COVID-19 czar Anthony Fauci’s wife, Christine Grady.
However, Native Americans are “insulted” by Grady’s reassignment, according to the Times.
The Times reported Monday that Native Americans are already made at recent changes made to the Department of Health and Human Services—including the shuttering of regional offices that cover much of the Indian population. Grady’s reassignment is apparently the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak.
“The final indignity, Native leaders say, came last week, when Mr. Kennedy reassigned high-ranking health officials — including a bioethicist married to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a tobacco regulator, a human resources manager and others — to Indian Health Service locations in the American West, when what the chronically understaffed service really needs are doctors and nurses who are familiar with the unique needs of Native people,” the Times reported Monday.
“More than half a dozen leaders of Native American groups used words like ‘cruel,’ ‘disingenuous’ and ‘offensive’ to describe the proposed transfers.”
It’s unclear whether Grady will actually go to the reservation. She reportedly had until last Wednesday to accept the reassignment or to resign. The Times reported that she declined to be interviewed.
Of the other officials who were ordered to the reservation, one reportedly said she’d consider the reassignment, while another declined. Both spoke to the Times on condition of anonymity.
The Times reported today that the Native Americans don't want Dr. Fauci's wife because they need real healthcare workers instead
Native American groups used words like “cruel,” “disingenuous” and “offensive” to describe Dr. Fauci's wife being reassigned to them. https://t.co/Z9g9wWCySz pic.twitter.com/sqItYeovZB— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) April 7, 2025
The Indian Health Services has offices in Alaska, Albuquerque, Bemidji, Billings, California, Great Plains, Nashville, Navajo, Oklahoma, Phoenix, Portland, and Tucson.
The Times further noted that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has lamented that the Indian Health Service has been “treated as the redheaded stepchild at H.H.S.,” and that said President Trump wants him to “rectify this sad history.”
The reassignments are part of a massive restructuring of the HHS.
As many as 10,000 scientists, senior leaders, doctors, inspectors and others across the department have already received layoff notices as part of an HHS effort to cut a quarter of its workforce.
“This overhaul is about realigning HHS with its core mission: to stop the chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy said on social media. “It’s a win-win for taxpayers, and for every American we serve.”
The move, the department has said, is expected to save $1.8 billion from the agency’s $1.7 trillion annual budget — about one-tenth of 1%.
The department has not released final numbers but last week said it planned to eliminate 3,500 jobs from the Food and Drug Administration, 2,400 jobs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 1,200 from the National Institutes of Health.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
