White House Pandemic Office Left Leaderless as Gerald Parker Resigns

Biosecurity expert Gerald Parker has resigned from the White House’s Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy after about six months on the job, according to officials cited by STAT. Although widely reported in February as the office’s director, Parker was never formally appointed to lead the congressionally mandated unit, and the administration had not corrected those earlier accounts. Parker’s departure leaves the pandemic office without a clear leader and stalls work on several pending policies, including a proposed federal ban on gain-of-function research that he had been drafting. Health-security specialists say the vacancy underscores broader disarray in the administration’s efforts to rebuild U.S. pandemic defenses.