The National Institutes of Health’s longest-serving director will reportedly step down Tuesday.
Politico reported Monday night, citing three unnamed sources that Dr. Francis Collins will announce his resignation after having led the agency for 12 years.
The 71-year-old physician-geneticist would retire as the only presidentially-appointed NIH chief to serve under three presidents — Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joseph R. Biden.
One of Politico’s sources said the departure is not sudden and had been planned for a time.
Last month, Dr. Collins backed the Food and Drug Administration in its refusal to make booster shots for COVID-19 broadly available, instead limiting them to vulnerable populations such as the elderly even though the Biden administration had vowed to have them broadly available by Sept. 20.
“This is the way it ought to be,” Dr. Collins said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “Science sort of playing out in a very transparent way, looking at the data coming from multiple places, our country, other countries, and trying to make the best decision for right now.”
Dr. Collins has been on network shows urging vaccinations, although Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has been the Institutes’ most visible face under both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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