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Francis collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, said on Tuesday that growing accusations about the agency’s involvement in gain-of-function research and the Wuhan Institute of Virology had “absolutely” nothing to do with it. his resignation.
The 71-year-old medical geneticist, who oversaw the research center for 12 years, announced his resignation on Tuesday, saying he would step down by the end of 2021.
“12 years is a long time,” Collins told “Your World” host Neil Cavuto on Tuesday. “No other NIH director has stayed in this position, even close to this. And so, it’s time for new leadership, a new vision. Institutions need it, especially scientific institutions.”
Collins said the NIH, which oversees 27 institutions and centers across the country, is in a “good position right now.”
“We have great leadership … and I’m not worried about COVID -19 [which is] still of course a huge challenge, that we would lose momentum if I moved away by the end of the year. We are well. We’re doing what we need to scientifically, so it seems like it’s time for me to step away, go back to my research lab and focus on some interesting projects and figure out what I want to do when I’m in. big.”
Collins said Dr Anthony Fauci, who is technically his subordinate, tried to talk him out of retiring.
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“He tried to talk me out of it. He and I have worked closely together for many years. He’s been there longer than I have been. I’ve been there for a long time. I think we’ve been good scientific partners. fully understood and understands that there is a time for this kind of decision to be made and for it to be a reasonable one. But it gives the president a chance to identify a new NIH director. ” , Collins said.
As for his successor, Collins said he hoped the president “would find the best possible scientist” to replace him.
“I think science and faith go hand in hand. I don’t really want to see a future where one has to win and the other has to lose.”
“This is what I’m looking to happen,” he told Cavuto.
The conversation took a turn when Cavuto asked Collins if his resignation had “something to do with what you knew, when you knew it and the source of the coronavirus, the Wuhan lab, and whether, deliberately or inadvertently, your funding helped provide this? “
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“No it didn’t, Neil,” Collins asserted. “Of course people are always looking for some kind of cause and effect here. I absolutely want to assure you and anyone listening that this has nothing to do with my decision.
“I also mean, although this is an important question – we have to understand what happened, how did this virus start in China – that our funding for this research and the ‘Wuhan Institute of Virology was a million miles away in terms of The genome of the virus we were talking about and to make the connection just isn’t bearable by the data. I’d like people to take a closer look and recognize that this is not an area that will give us an answer to how the COVID-2 sars got started. “
When asked if he supported the theory of laboratory leaks, Collins said he believed that “it was most likely a natural origin starting in a bat, possibly traveling through an intermediate host. .
But, he stressed, “I cannot rule out the possibility that the Wuhan Institute secretly caught this virus and is studying it and had a laboratory accident and it got loose. no evidence to back it up, “he continued,” but I can’t rule it out. I would like the Chinese to sort things out and reveal their lab records and hospital records of people who fell ill in November 2019… but they don’t seem willing to do it. “
Collins went on to say that he supported President Biden’s vaccine tenure despite the “heavy” approach.
“I agree if it can save lives,” he said. “I’m sorry it has to go in that direction and get more brutal, but do we want to lose 100,000 more lives that shouldn’t have been lost? Now is the time to do it. People are rejecting vaccination, this isn’t the case. about themselves. It’s pretty much okay, who else are you going to infect when you get sick? It’s a community responsibility. It is not just a question of rights. It is also a question of responsibilities. If we are to end this pandemic, we must all be prepared to do our part. “
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“Do you think science only takes over from here?” Cavuto asked.
“I think science and faith go hand in hand,” Collins said. “I don’t really want to see a future where one has to win and the other has to lose. They are complementary. There are different ways of looking for truths. Science is good enough to answer questions about how things work. You need faith to answer the why questions.
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