NIH Director Francis Collins defends Fauci amid White House criticism
WASHINGTON — Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, defended the beleaguered disease researcher Tony Fauci in an interview this week, calling the prospect of firing or demoting him “unimaginable.”
Fauci, who has led the National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 36 years, has recently come under fire from President Trump, an array of White House aides, and other Trump allies. But Collins, who is nominally Fauci’s boss, implied he would not follow orders to dismiss Fauci, should they come. Instead, he touted Fauci’s decades-long scientific acumen as a national asset — one that’s especially critical amid a pandemic that has already claimed 138,000 American lives.
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