Former NIH Director Francis Collins Retires From Agency

The doctor was head of the National Institutes of Health for more than a decade.

Dr. Francis Collins speaks in Washington on Sept. 9, 2020. Michael Reynolds /Pool/Getty Images

Dr. Francis Collins, who led the National Institutes of Health (NIH) when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, has stepped down from the federal government.

Collins said in a March 1 statement that he was retiring. He did not list a reason for his abrupt departure and declined a request for an interview.

Collins, 74, was the director of the NIH from 2009 until December 2021, when he stepped down from the position but remained with the agency, overseeing research into diabetes and a genetic aging disorder.

The doctor said he was honored with a long career at an agency “rightfully called the crown jewel of the federal government for decades.” He said that NIH support enabled a range of scientific advancements, including treatments for cancer and sickle cell disease.

Under President Donald Trump, the NIH has fired more than 1,000 workers.

“[NIH employees] are individuals of extraordinary intellect and integrity, selfless and hard-working, generous and compassionate,“ Collins said. ”They personify excellence in every way and they deserve the utmost respect and support of all Americans.”

Early in his career, Collins discovered the gene that causes cystic fibrosis, which helped lead years later to effective treatment for the lung disease. He credited the discovery to an NIH grant supporting his research at the University of Michigan.

Collins joined the NIH in 1993 to lead the Human Genome Project, which in 2003 completed the mapping of human DNA—two years ahead of schedule and $400 million under budget, Collins noted in his statement.

Collins was head of the NIH when COVID-19 appeared in 2020. Both he and one of his close allies, then-National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, supported risky research known as gain-of-function in locations outside the United States, including China, where the first COVID-19 cases were detected. After the pandemic started, Collins and Fauci defended the research.

Collins during the pandemic also supported widespread masking and COVID-19 vaccinations as well as lockdowns that shuttered schools and many businesses across the nation. He urged Fauci and others in an email that was later made public to counter the Great Barrington Declaration, which advocated for looser restrictions while letting many people go about their lives as normal.

After Collins announced his retirement, some praised his work.

“Francis Collins and a team of researchers identified the cystic fibrosis gene over 30 years ago, and because of people like him I’m alive today with kids of my own,” Gunnar Esiason, with the Boomer Esiason Foundation, wrote on social media platform X.

“Francis helped usher in an era of genomic medicine whose fruits we are just beginning to reap,” Dr. Ashish Jha, a former adviser to the White House, stated. “Yeah, haters will find some email or two of his from the pandemic to smear him. But history will judge him as a legend who helped transform American medicine.”

Others offered criticism, including Dr. Joseph Marine, a cardiologist based in Maryland.

Marine said on X that Collins should have stuck to his field of genetics and not offered opinions in other areas.

“Weighed against his great accomplishments in his own field will be his negligent oversight of gain-of-function research and poor leadership of NIH during covid,” Marine wrote.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.