Where Are They Now · Profile 03

Francis Collins

Francis Collins

Director of the National Institutes of Health through the first two years of the pandemic, then acting Science Advisor to President Biden.

Claims are labeled Documented, Allegation, Open question or Gap (something the public record does not yet show). An allegation or open question is not a finding of wrongdoing. Bias, advocacy or bad policy calls are not fraud. Collins has not been charged with, or accused in any court of, a crime.

Who he was in the COVID era

  • Director of the National Institutes of Health (2009 to Dec. 19, 2021). Nominated by President Obama and kept on by President Trump in 2017; he served three presidents. NIAID, Anthony Fauci’s institute, is part of NIH. Documented Sources: Collins retirement statement (Mar. 1, 2025); Templeton Prize (May 20, 2020); OGE 278 termination report
  • In his own words, he “pull[ed] together partnerships with the FDA, academia, and the private sector” on COVID vaccines. Documented (his statement)
  • Acting Science Advisor to President Biden and acting co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, named Feb. 16, 2022 after Eric Lander resigned. Documented Source: White House release, UCSB American Presidency Project
  • Earlier: led the Human Genome Project / NHGRI (1993–2008); co-discovered the cystic fibrosis gene (1989, University of Michigan); founded BioLogos (2007). Documented Source: Templeton Prize

In the film

  • Epidemic of Fraud plays a 2017 (pre-COVID) clip of Collins with Bill Gates at ASHG17, at 01:06:14–01:06:32: “…I’m certainly speaking as the NIH director here… I’ve got a big bag of cat food. It’s called the NIH budget, and if it’s appropriately applied, it can actually encourage some pretty good things to happen.” Documented Source: YouTube — Gates & Collins at #ASHG17
  • Narration at 01:30:28: “Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins worked desperately in the early phases of COVID and later on to make certain that the public did not know these details.” The Great Barrington email and the Feb. 2020 origins call (below) are documented; intent to conceal is the film’s argument. Allegation

COVID-era money

Collins’s COVID-era money trail is far thinner than Fauci’s or Emanuel’s. The largest item is a prize awarded mid-pandemic, and he reports donating most of it.

2020 Templeton Prize

  • Named 2020 Templeton laureate on May 20, 2020 (prize valued at £1.1 million). Documented Source: Templeton Prize
  • His OGE 278e for calendar 2020 lists a total prize value of $1,347,477. He “arranged for direct donation of $765,000 to a total of nine charities” and reports the remaining $582,477 as a gift from the John Templeton Foundation. Documented (copy from a third-party archive) Source: Collins OGE 278e for CY2020 (archived copy)
  • One recipient was the Henrietta Lacks Foundation (amount not stated). Documented Source: Henrietta Lacks Foundation (Oct. 2020)

Federal pay

NIH inventor royalties

  • NIH’s FOIA production lists 21 third-party royalty payments to Collins (2010–2021) from GeneDx (12), Specialty Laboratories/Quest (4), Ionis (formerly ISIS) Pharmaceuticals (4) and the Progeria Research Foundation (1). Dollar amounts withheld. Documented (counts and payers only) Source: OpenTheBooks (Aug. 9, 2023)
  • OpenTheBooks notes those four payers received about $50M in federal contracts and grants since 2008. That is a fact about the payers, not evidence of a quid pro quo. Open question
  • A federal court ruled on Sept. 4, 2026 that NIH may keep individual inventor-award amounts secret, so there is no public figure. NIH caps inventor royalties at $150,000 per year. Documented Sources: DOJ OIP case summary; NIH Office of Technology Transfer
  • On the cystic fibrosis gene patents (University of Michigan, not NIH), Collins donated all his patent royalties to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Documented Source: Chandrasekharan et al., PMC3825408

Books

  • OGE reports for CY2019 and CY2020 show Simon & Schuster royalties (The Language of God) of $15,001–$50,000 a year; other book royalties under $201. Documented Sources: CY2020 278e; CY2019 278e (archived copies)
  • The Road to Wisdom: On Truth, Science, Faith, and Trust (Little, Brown, Sept. 17, 2024), largely about the pandemic-era trust crisis. Documented The advance is not public. Gap Source: Publishers Weekly

What was not found

  • No PPP loans, COVID consulting firms, corporate board seats or COVID-vaccine patent royalties for Collins personally turned up. His 2021 termination report lists no outside positions. Absence in the records reviewed is not proof. Gap Source: OGE 278 termination report (Dec. 19, 2021)

Consequences

  • Not pardoned. Collins is not on President Biden’s Jan. 19, 2025 clemency list. He has never been charged. Documented Source: DOJ Office of the Pardon Attorney
  • Great Barrington Declaration email (Oct. 8, 2020), obtained by FOIA. Collins wrote Fauci that the Declaration’s authors were “fringe epidemiologists” and called for “a quick and devastating published take down of its premises.” In a Jan. 12, 2024 House interview he confirmed it and said he meant it was “a dangerous approach that could do great harm.” Documented Advocacy, not a legal violation. Sources: AIER (archived); House SSCP staff memo (May 16, 2024)
  • House Select Subcommittee transcribed interview (Jan. 12, 2024). Per the majority memo, he testified that a lab-related accident is “not at this point” a conspiracy theory; that COVID origins are still “unsettled science”; that he did not see evidence for the six-foot distancing rule; and that Fauci invited him to the Feb. 1, 2020 call linked to Proximal Origin. Documented Sources: SSCP memo; Full transcript
  • The House subcommittee’s final report (Dec. 2024) cites a 2011 Fauci–Collins public statement supporting this kind of research. A contested majority report, not a legal finding. Documented Source: SSCP Final Report
  • Named at the July 29, 2026 Senate Fauci hearing. Chairman Paul said Fauci told Collins on Feb. 2, 2020, “Please delete this email after you read it.” Sen. Ron Johnson read an April 29 email (year not confirmed) from Collins to NINDS director Walter Koroshetz about Dr. Nath’s post-vaccination neurological case reports: “I find this approach troubling and will have the main consequence of feeing [sic] vaccine hesitancy and social media overreaction.” These are senators’ readings in the official record; Collins was not a witness and is not accused of a crime. Allegation (underlying emails not independently reviewed here) Source: S. Hrg. 119-504 (GPO)
  • No inspector-general finding, criminal referral, settlement or charge against Collins personally was found. The HHS Inspector General’s January 2023 EcoHealth audit faults NIH grant oversight during his tenure, without naming him for wrongdoing. Documented (institutional) Source: HHS-OIG A-05-21-00025
  • Retired from NIH effective Feb. 28, 2025, after returning to an NHGRI lab in 2023. He gave no reason; the timing coincided with NIH layoffs under the new administration. He was not reported fired. Documented Sources: Collins statement; NPR (Mar. 1, 2025); AP

Where is he now

  • Founder & CEO of Discovery Lives in Us (dliu.org), a nonprofit launched in September 2026 to “build enduring public support” for publicly funded medical research. It is fiscally sponsored by UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, with 501(c)(3) status pending. Executive director Adrienne Hallett is a former NIH legislative director; the board includes former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Freda Lewis-Hall, former Chief Medical Officer of Pfizer. Documented Source: Discovery Lives in Us — Who We Are
  • The organization advocates for NIH funding. Its funders and Collins’s compensation are not yet public. Open question

What the record does not show yet

  • Exact NIH royalty dollars — withheld by NIH and upheld in court (Sept. 4, 2026). Gap
  • Official-channel copies of his OGE financial disclosures (the copies cited above are from a third-party archive). Gap
  • Any post-2025 speaking fees, the Road to Wisdom advance, and Discovery Lives in Us pay or funders. Gap

Last reviewed October 2026. This profile is updated as new records surface. Corrections: Press@EpidemicOfFraud.com

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