UMVA has learned that Dr. Jeffery Taubenberger, a longtime ally of former Anthony Fauci and a key figure in the COVID lab-leak cover-up, has stepped down as Acting Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
The sudden departure, which occurred over a week ago, has sent shockwaves through the scientific community and is being hailed as a major victory by watchdog groups who have been pushing for Taubenberger's removal.
According to information obtained by UMVA, Taubenberger's ouster is a direct result of relentless pressure from the White Coat Waste Project (WCW), a taxpayer watchdog organization that has been exposing Fauci's beagle torture scandals and Wuhan lab funding.
WCW has been vocal in its criticism of Taubenberger, calling him a "disastrous vetting failure" and a key player in the COVID lab-leak cover-up machine. The group has highlighted Taubenberger's role in co-leading efforts to undermine Trump's 2020 ban on gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Taubenberger's departure comes as part of a sweeping leadership purge at NIAID, where eight of the top ten officials have now been pushed out or reassigned since President Trump took office. The move has been seen as a significant step towards cleaning house and holding accountable those who have been involved in Fauci's shameful legacy.
WCW President Anthony Bellotti has laid out a damning case against Taubenberger, detailing his role in co-authoring papers with indicted Fauci aide David Morens that dismissed the lab-leak theory as "thoroughly discredited" and promoted the natural-origin narrative.
Emails obtained by WCW through FOIA requests have shown that Taubenberger was looped in on communications bragging that their work "defends Peter Daszak and his Chinese colleagues." The group has also highlighted Taubenberger's involvement in "Beaglegate"-style experiments, including funding for maximum-pain beagle tests.
The pressure on Taubenberger has been mounting, with lawmakers, including Senators Joni Ernst and Rand Paul, and Representatives Paul Gosar and Nancy Mace, calling out the NIH for not cutting Fauci's animal labs.
WCW has teamed up with investigative journalist Laura Loomer to sound the alarm, and their efforts have paid off. Loomer has highlighted Taubenberger's role in digging up a corpse to extract the 1918 flu virus for gain-of-function research and questioned why animal abuse projects were still being renewed under the Trump administration.
The segment went viral, racking up hundreds of thousands of views and putting the White House and new NIH leadership on notice. A year later, WCW was back on Loomer's show, exposing how Fauci-era holdovers like Taubenberger and NIAID animal testing czar Nicole Kleinstreuer were still greenlighting cruel pet experiments.
The news of Taubenberger's departure has been met with celebration from WCW, with Senior Vice President Justin Goodman saying "Good riddance. White Coat Waste has been calling for Jeff Taubenberger's scalp for over a year as he kept Fauci's shameful legacy alive by bankrolling more barbaric animal labs and dangerous virus experiments."
The exit, alongside the broader NIAID purge, sends a clear message that the swamp creatures who lied about COVID origins, tortured animals with taxpayer dollars, and pushed dangerous experiments are no longer untouchable.
However, WCW has warned that dozens of Fauci loyalists still lurk in the shadows at NIH, and it is well past time to get them out.
