"It is humbling for me, and awe-inspiring to realize that we have caught the first glimpse of our own instruction book, previously known only to God." Francis Collins, PhD, MD former Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute
“[Evangelicals] have forgotten many times that freedom is not just about rights,” Collins contended. He then employed a mocking caricature of a Southern accent, asking the students, “How many times have you heard, ‘Muh freedom means I got rights’? Well, okay, you also have that other R-word: responsibilities. That’s what freedom is supposed to incorporate.” Francis Collins, PhD, MD Director of the National Institutes of Health.
Much has been written about Francis Collins as both a man of scientific and administrative accomplishment and of devout faith. Collins has openly stated that his role as a scientist is not in conflict with his faith in which God allows for evolution. I will leave that there for the reader to judge.
I want to spend a minute on the role of Dr. Collins in Gain of Function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the creation of SARS-CoV-2.
On 17 October 2014 the Obama White House suspended Gain of Function research on influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) to stop their work until a risk assessment is completed. The reason for the suspension? Sara Reardon tells us:
”Critics of such work argue that it is unnecessarily dangerous and risks accidentally releasing viruses with pandemic potential — such as an engineered H5N1 influenza virus that easily spreads between ferrets breathing the same air1,2. In 2012, such concerns prompted a global group of flu researchers to halt gain-of-function experiments for a year (see Naturehttp://doi.org/wgx;2012). The debate reignited in July, after a series of lab accidents involving mishandled pathogens at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.”
On 19 December 2017, Collins lifted the Obama moratorium on Gain of Function research. Collins wrote:
”Today, the National Institutes of Health announced that it is lifting a funding pause dating back to October 2014 on gain-of-function (GOF) experiments involving influenza, SARS, and MERS viruses. GOF research is important in helping us identify, understand, and develop strategies and effective countermeasures against rapidly evolving pathogens that pose a threat to public health.”
There is no doubt that as Director of NIH, Collins had a close and warm relationship with Tony Fauci and with the suspension on conducting GOF research lifted Fauci was free to continue what we now know was a back door effort to fund GOF work at he Wuhan Institute of Virology. We now know with growing certainty that GOF research using the original SARS virus led to production of SARS-CoV-2 and its attendant respiratory infection COVID-19.
It is clear that Collins resigned his position because it was discovered that he and Tony Fauci lied about using tax-payer dollars to fund GOF research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
In a statement on Collins’ resignation the Infectious Disease Society of America wrote:
”His 12 years at NIH will leave a lasting legacy for generations.”
This what Collins wrote in his book, “The Language of God”.
“1. The Universe came into being out of nothingness, approximately 14 billion years ago.
2. Despite massive improbabilities, the properties of the universe appear to have been precisely tuned for life.
3. While the precise mechanism of the origin of life on earth remains unknown, once life arose, the process of evolution and natural selection permitted the development of biological diversity and complexity over very long periods of time.
4. Once evolution got under way, no special supernatural intervention was required.
5. Humans are part of this process, sharing a common ancestor with the great apes.
6. But humans are also unique in ways that defy evolutionary explanation and point to our spiritual nature. This includes the existence of the Moral Law (the knowledge of right and wrong) and the search for God that characterizes all human cultures throughout history”.
Interestingly, this man of wondrous science and and self-asserted deep faith neglected to mention that no one has ever found those “great apes”.
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.” Galations 1:6-7
It is clear that Collins was at the heart of the making of this public health, social, and political disaster. Some would argue that GOF research is, in effect, playing at being God. That is for God to decide. In the meantime Doctor Collins needs to reflect on the pain and suffering that he and Tony Fauci have inflicted the people of the world.
Clearly a man who disparages the faith of others because it is an obstacle to his political agenda needs to reflect on whom he is serving.
Union, KY
10 March 2022
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