Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump, Republicans Squeezed NIH Director To Back Unproven Covid Drugs
CNN: Dr. Francis Collins: Outgoing NIH Director Says Trump And Other Republicans Pressured Him To Endorse Unproven Covid-19 Remedies And To Fire Fauci
The outgoing director of the National Institutes of Health said Sunday that he faced political pressure from then-President Donald Trump and other Republicans to endorse unproven Covid-19 remedies such as hydroxychloroquine and to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Francis Collins, whose last day as NIH director is Sunday, told CBS News that he got a "talking to" by Trump, but that he held his ground and would have resigned if Trump made him endorse remedies for Covid-19 that were not based in science. (McPhillips and Cole, 12/19)
Fox News: Retiring NIH Director Says He Was Never Pressured To Fire Fauci, Slams Atlas Over Herd Immunity
Retiring National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins told Fox News on Friday that he was never asked to fire his nationally-recognized subordinate Anthony Fauci, despite the NIAID director's frequent clashes with Trump administration officials over federal coronavirus mitigation policy. He also criticized former Trump coronavirus task force member Dr. Scott Atlas for touting herd immunity as a potential strategy for dealing with the pandemic. Collins, 71, will leave the agency on Sunday after more than a decade in its top position. (Creitz, 12/18)
Dr. Collins also slammed "fringe epidemiologists" —
Fox News: Outgoing NIH Director Says 'Hundreds Of Thousands Would Have Died' From COVID If US Hadn't Listened To Him
Outgoing National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins took aim at the makers of the "The Great Barrington Declaration," refusing to step down from calling them "fringe epidemiologists" while arguing "hundreds of thousands" would have died of COVID-19 if the country followed their advice. Collins told Fox News host Bret Baier Sunday that he was "not going to apologize" for comments Friday in front of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis in which he called advocates of herd immunity "fringe epidemiologists," arguing that "hundreds of thousands of people would have died if we had followed that strategy." (Lee, 12/19)
NPR: COVID Is The Real "Enemy," Outgoing NIH Director Tells Fox News
"We've got to remember, this is the enemy," Collins said, holding up a model of the virus. "It's not the other people in the other political party. It's not the people on Facebook who are posting all sorts of crazy conspiracies. This is the enemy. We in this country have somehow gotten all fractured into a hyper-polarized, politicized view that never should have been mixed with public health. It's been ruinous and history will judge harshly those people who have continued to defocus the effort and focus on conspiracies and things that are demonstrably false." (Schwartz, 12/19)
A congressional report released Friday concludes that the Trump administration downplayed covid on purpose —
NBC News: Trump White House Made 'Deliberate Efforts' To Undermine Covid Response, Report Says
The Trump administration engaged in “deliberate efforts” to undermine the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic for political purposes, a congressional report released Friday concludes. The report, prepared by the House select subcommittee investigating the nation’s Covid response, says the White House repeatedly overruled public health and testing guidance by the nation’s top infectious disease experts and silenced officials in order to promote then-President Donald Trump's political agenda. (Shabad, 12/17)
Also —
CBS News: NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins On A Life In Science
For Dr. Francis Collins, the adventure of owning a Harley is nothing compared with the challenge of running the sprawling National Institutes of Health: "We have 27 institutes and centers," he told correspondent Rita Braver. "They range everything from institutes that are focused on a disease – the National Cancer Institute – to some that are focused on organ systems – the National Eye Institute, for Infectious disease, heart, lung and blood. And I've had a pretty good time getting the best people in the world to come and lead those institutes." But now, after 12 years on the job – one of the longest runs in history – Collins will step down today. (12/19)
