Is Dr. Francis Collins A Good Fit To Head The NIH?

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Dr. Francis Collins has many important qualifications that would make him a good fit to head the NIH during the Trump administration. He is the current Director of the NIH, and has been serving this position since August of 2009. He is also a physician and a geneticist, and has made many important discoveries on genes involved in certain diseases. Dr. Collins also helped to lead the Human Genome Project back in 2003. Prior to serving as the Director of NIH, he was a medical institute investigator at the University of Michigan. He was also given the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2007) and the National Medal of Science (2009). B. Leading argument(s) advanced by promoters of this candidate Promoters of Dr. Collins believe he would be a good …show more content…

Collins would be a good fit to head the NIH during the Trump administration, there are some people who think otherwise. Opponents of this candidate believe that since Dr. Collins has held this position for so long, it is time to bring someone else in to provide new ideas for advances in healthcare and scientific research. Some scientists believe it would be a good time to bring a new qualified candidate to head the NIH, as keeping Dr. Collins on may lead to the recycling of old ideas regarding the fields of scientific research. It seems as if this is the main leading argument advanced by opponents of Dr. …show more content…

Soon-Shiong believe he would be a good fit to be the Director of the NIH for various reasons. First, Soon-Shiong has been active in government before, as he was one of the scientists who advised Vice President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative. Many scientists his experience with this would allow him to be a good leader of the NIH. He is also runs his own program called Cancer MoonShot 2020, which is numerous pharmaceutical companies working together to create certain immunotherapies. This program is being done in collaboration with the NIH as well. Dr. Soon-Shiong is also believed to be a good candidate for this position because he is being considered for other government positions, including the position of presidential science adviser; this means that Soon-Shiong is clearly a trustworthy person to hold a government