Internal communications obtained by Nature reveal that staff at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) have been instructed to remove the terms ‘biodefense’ and ‘pandemic preparedness’ from the institute’s web pages. This directive marks a significant shift for the multi-billion dollar agency, which is currently undergoing a massive reorganization under the leadership of NIH director Jay Bhattacharya. The change moves the institute away from its traditional focus on HIV research, biodefense, and global readiness, refocusing instead on basic immunology and diseases currently affecting the American population.
Public health experts are raising alarms, warning that these linguistic and policy shifts could leave the United States more vulnerable to emerging pathogens and biological threats. Critics argue that ignoring these critical security pillars does not eliminate the risks, but rather diminishes the nation’s capacity to detect and respond to future outbreaks. As roughly a third of the NIAID’s budget has historically supported studies on high-consequence pathogens and medical countermeasures, the pivot signals a fundamental transformation in how the U.S. approaches global health security and biosecurity research.
source: Nature. (2026). Exclusive: Key US infectious-diseases centre to drop pandemic preparation. Nature.
