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Francis Collins to step down as NIH director
National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins plans to announce his resignation on Tuesday after nearly three decades at the agency, including 12 years at the helm, three sources tell POLITICO.
The 71-year-old physician-geneticist led the agency under three consecutive presidents — making him the first presidentially appointed NIH director to serve in more than one administration and the longest-serving NIH director.
His departure had been in the works for some time, one person familiar said. Officials from NIH, the Department of Health and Human Services and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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(Score: 4, Informative) by DannyB on Tuesday October 05 2021, @06:04PM (5 children)
If he's been there three decades, 12 years at the helm under three presidents, and he's 71 years old -- I find it unsurprising that maybe he feels ready to do something else. He's done his part.
Other than the length of his service, is there some other significance to this story?
(Please do not take my quotations as evidence that I read the article. Mere quotations give me deniability.)
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @07:53PM (2 children)
At various points in the last year or so he was a favorite target of the MAGA/sedition crowd, mainly for being Fauci's boss and for backing him for doing his job. I'm sure this story is playing larger on some sites than others (mainly sites where they seem to run an unusual number of ads for buying pillows).
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @08:23PM
I hated Francis before it was cool.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 06 2021, @02:19AM
Nice astroturf. Nobody can be that dense and uninformed to side with NIH.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SunTzuWarmaster on Wednesday October 06 2021, @01:02PM (1 child)
I mean, I don't disagree, but the NIH controls the second-largest federal research budget in the US (DoD and NSF being #1 and #3), and its director of 12 years has stepped down. That seems like a "news for nerds" story any way you slice it - "news" being defined as "an event happened" and "nerds" as "having an interest in the 2nd-largest research funding agency."
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday October 06 2021, @02:13PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @07:12PM (3 children)
NIH is an USian thing? Guess I just assumed it was British like the Ministry of Sound...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @07:36PM (1 child)
Nah now a days it's more akin to Ministry of Truth.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @09:41PM
Alien: It is 2021, humans have advanced medical science and clearly understand how diseases spread. So how did COVID cause so much damage?
Human: Well we have humans that say things like https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=45323&page=1&cid=1184530#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] unironically while supporting a conman that told him the disease was a hoax AND would magically disappear. You might want to check back in a few hundred thousand years, maybe humans will evolve and improve a little more.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday October 05 2021, @09:50PM
Even if you live outside the US, you can definitely catch it if you are exposed to it.
The thing about landline phones is that they never get lost. No air tag necessary.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 05 2021, @10:49PM
I funnels the most money into bio-medical research, and others aren't even close. Twelve years at the head of such an outfit inevitably generates controversies, major and minor, although it will be in the closed confines of the medical research circles.
Anyone in the know to list some of the more notable events during his tenure?