Interesting- Francis Collins stepping down as NIH director

[womanofthehills]

Link to tweet

?s=2

[Delphinus]

1. Indeed.

I thought he did a good job.

[Hortensis]

2. Collins called the unexpected culture wars over vaccines and masks "major heartbreak."

“I did not dream that we would end up with fantastic, historic [vaccine test] results, and here we are in October 2021 with 70 million” people unvaccinated and hundreds of thousands dead “as a result of a culture war,” Collins said.

“I did not imagine that possible in the United States of America.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/10/04/nih-collins-step-down/

+1 million, Dr. Collins.

[blogslug]

3. Why is that "interesting"?

He's had a long, distinguished career and he's 71.

[womanofthehills]

4. Just curious about the timing and his saying 12 yrs is too long

Is he taking a jab at Fauci who has been at NIAIH for 50 yrs - 38 as director?

“There comes a time where an institution like NIH really benefits from new vision, new leadership,” Collins, 71, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “This was the right timing.”

[blogslug]

5. Or maybe he was planning to retire two years ago and then the pandemic hit

Unless you know something about the lives of these men that I don't know, I'm going with him retiring because he can.

[womanofthehills]

7. Well he is getting heat from Republicans and being questioned

About money that went to Eco Health Alliance. I find him interesting because he is known as the scientist who believes on god. He is a conservative evangelical Christian.

https://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/03/collins.commentary/index.html

U.S. News
CNN Exchange: Commentary
Collins: Why this scientist believes in God

POSTED: 9:37 a.m. EDT, April 6, 2007

By Dr. Francis Collins

Editor's note: Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., is the director of the Human Genome Project. His most recent book is "The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief."

ROCKVILLE, Maryland (CNN) -- I am a scientist and a believer, and I find no conflict between those world

So, some have asked, doesn't your brain explode? Can you both pursue an understanding of how life works using the tools of genetics and molecular biology, and worship a creator God? Aren't evolution and faith in God incompatible? Can a scientist believe in miracles like the resurrection?

Actually, I find no conflict here, and neither apparently do the 40 percent of working scientists who claim to be believers. Yes, evolution by descent from a common ancestor is clearly true. If there was any lingering doubt about the evidence from the fossil record, the study of DNA provides the strongest possible proof of our relatedness to all other living things.

But why couldn't this be God's plan for creation? True, this is incompatible with an ultra-literal interpretation of Genesis, but long before Darwin, there were many thoughtful interpreters like St. Augustine, who found it impossible to be exactly sure what the meaning of that amazing creation story was supposed to be. So attaching oneself to such literal interpretations in the face of compelling scientific evidence pointing to the ancient age of Earth and the relatedness of living things by evolution seems neither wise nor necessary for the believer.

I have found there is a wonderful harmony in the complementary truths of science and faith. The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. God can be found in the cathedral or in the laboratory. By investigating God's majestic and awesome creation, science can actually be a means of worship.

[Klaralven]

6. He's 71 - there is no good reason to die on the job

He has a wife who is likely in her early 60s, two daughters and five grandchildren.