{"id":1363057,"date":"2022-03-07T11:55:23","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T16:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1363057"},"modified":"2022-03-07T17:08:29","modified_gmt":"2022-03-07T22:08:29","slug":"exclusive-in-leaked-audio-former-nih-director-new-biden-science-adviser-laughs-over-threatening-unemployment-to-force-vaccines-blames-trump-for-covid-19-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-in-leaked-audio-former-nih-director-new-biden-science-adviser-laughs-over-threatening-unemployment-to-force-vaccines-blames-trump-for-covid-19-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: In Leaked Audio Former NIH Director\/New Biden Science Adviser Laughs Over Threatening Unemployment To Force Vaccines, Blames Trump For COVID-19 Deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">44<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexclusive-in-leaked-audio-former-nih-director-new-biden-science-adviser-laughs-over-threatening-unemployment-to-force-vaccines-blames-trump-for-covid-19-deaths%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1363057&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/03\/GettyImages-1228424284-scaled.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Former head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Francis Collins, appointed as President Biden\u2019s new science adviser on February 17, has consistently maintained that he plays a nonpartisan role in the federal government. Collins told<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/03\/09\/975263049\/in-the-24th-mile-of-a-marathon-fauci-and-collins-reflect-on-their-pandemic-year\"> NPR<\/a>, for example, that he and his former employee, Anthony Fauci, are \u201cnot political figures,\u201d and expressed frustration over criticism directed toward them as being driven by \u201ca very strong political overtone.\u201d Their COVID-19 policy recommendations, he insists by contrast, have been based solely on scientific data.<\/p>\n<p>But a leaked audio recording obtained by The Daily Wire calls Collins\u2019 claims of political neutrality into question.<\/p>\n<p>During a private October 26 event at the University of Chicago, the physician wandered far afield of medical opinion, offering legal arguments for federal vaccine mandates and maintaining that the threat of job loss should be used to pressure citizens into getting the shots. He also took aim at former President Trump over COVID-19 deaths that occurred early in the pandemic and admitted to green lighting controversial research that relied on organs harvested from aborted infants.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018My Employer Made Me Do It\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The event, which included an interview portion along with a question-and-answer session, was hosted by Christianity Today theologian Russell Moore on behalf of the Institute of Politics, an organization founded by senior Obama adviser, David Axelrod. It began with Moore introducing Collins, a personal friend and member of his book club, to a select group of students Moore described as \u201cfuture elected officials, diplomats, [and] economists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Moore said he invited Collins to explain the efforts they have made \u201cseparately and together to deal with evangelical resistance to the vaccine with COVID and some of the controversies we\u2019ve had over masking and government mandates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though in January the Supreme Court struck down emergency Labor Department regulations that would have forced private businesses with 100 or more employees to require vaccinations or weekly testing, the mandates for health care workers still stands and litigation involving mandates for federal contractors is ongoing. According to a February 2 report from<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/advisor\/personal-finance\/vaccine-mandate-withdrawn\/\"> Forbes<\/a>, the White House believes that a broader federal mandate is still on the table.<\/p>\n<p>Six months before the Chicago event, in a separate<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/better-samaritan\/2021\/june\/how-evangelicals-can-grapple-with-vaccine-using-both-scienc.html\">\u00a0panel<\/a> with Moore who was then head of the public policy arm of the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., Collins had assured evangelical audiences that there would <em>not<\/em> be \u201cany mandating vaccines from the U.S. government.\u201d However, by early September, Biden had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/legal\/government\/biden-vaccine-mandate-will-test-us-workplace-regulator-2021-09-13\/\">shifted<\/a> toward an aggressive pursuit of coerced vaccination under threat of unemployment through OSHA regulations. And Collins made it clear to Axelrod\u2019s students that his views, too, had shifted in support of the new agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking from a legal rather than medical standpoint, Collins responded to a question regarding the wisdom of federal vaccine mandates by pointing to the 1905 Supreme Court case, <em>Jacobson vs. Massachusetts<\/em>, that dealt with the much-more deadly small-pox virus.<\/p>\n<p>In a summary for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aei.org\/articles\/vaccine-mandates-and-jacobson-v-massachusetts-a-closer-look\/\">American Enterprise Institute<\/a>, legal scholar Sean Trende called the ruling a \u201cpreviously obscure 116-year-old precedent [that] barely warrants a footnote in most constitutional law treatises.\u201d But he noted that non-experts have taken to citing it \u201cwhenever anyone questions the legality or constitutionality of vaccine mandates in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.\u201d Collins referenced it in this fashion at the Institute of Politics engagement, telling the students that because of Jacobsen, \u201cThere\u2019s no question in [his] mind that the mandates are legal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He then argued that intimidation tactics should be used to motivate the resistant to take the vaccine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe US government does have the authority to mandate vaccinations if there is an outbreak that is threatening people, because it\u2019s not just about you, it\u2019s about the people you\u2019re going to infect,\u201d Collins claimed, even though science <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-021-02187-1\">journals<\/a> were already reporting at that point that vaccinated people were also spreading the then-dominant Delta variant.<\/p>\n<p>Collins went on to ask rhetorically, \u201cDo [mandates] convince people who otherwise wouldn\u2019t get them?\u201d He answered himself, \u201cOh yeah, especially if it means losing your job.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As evidence, he described how successful the threat of unemployment was at persuading vaccine-hesitant NIH employees and contractors working under him to get vaccinated. When he made it clear to the 2,000 out of 46,000 workers who had still declined to take the jabs that they were \u201cin serious danger of being fired in the next month if they [didn\u2019t] do something about it,\u201d Collins said he got a \u201cbig response.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cReality [was] sinking in,\u201d he explained, so that even the \u201cpretty darn resistant\u201d elected to get vaccinated. He then chuckled, \u201cYou get the feeling that their resistance was not maybe quite that deeply seated,\u201d and speculated that deep down, many unvaccinated people may actually want to get the vaccine but resist doing so out of peer pressure. \u201cThey\u2019re sort of thinking to themselves, you know, maybe I really should do it, but if I do, I lose my credibility with my peeps,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n<p>Mandates, he argued, can give such individuals a way to save face because they can tell their social circle, \u201c\u2019Well, my employer made me do it. I didn\u2019t really want to get them.\u2019 They get, you know, bonus points, because they\u2019re now a victim. But they\u2019ve also gotten the mandated vaccine that they kind of wanted anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Collins said evangelicals, in particular, over-emphasize notions of personal liberty when it comes to mandates, saying they have so \u201cwrapped themselves in the flag and wrapped themselves in this concept of personal freedom, that public health just grates on them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Evangelicals] have forgotten many times that freedom is not just about rights,\u201d Collins contended. He then employed a mocking caricature of a Southern accent, asking the students, \u201cHow many times have you heard, \u2018Muh freedom means I got rights\u2019? Well, okay, you also have that other R-word: responsibilities. That\u2019s what freedom is supposed to incorporate. And the responsibility part isn\u2019t quite so popular and often just gets forgotten all together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018A Devil\u2019s Bargain\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Arguably the most politically pointed portion of the event came when Moore asked Collins about the political opinions of his fellow Christians. Collins answered by referencing an Atlantic<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2021\/10\/evangelical-trump-christians-politics\/620469\/\"> article<\/a> by anti-Trump pundit Peter Wehner, another member of his and Moore\u2019s book club, that argued evangelicals have \u201cembraced the worst aspects of our culture and our politics\u201d and that \u201cchurches [have] become repositories not of grace but of grievances, places where tribal identities are reinforced, where fears are nurtured, and where aggression and nastiness are sacralized.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Building on this theme, Collins claimed that the Trump administration uniquely violated norms of separation of church and state in reaching out to white, Protestant voters. \u201c[Separation of church and state] all got pretty muddy under the Trump administration. There was clearly a heavy effort to try to build political alliances with particularly white evangelicals. And it worked,\u201d Collins said.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, former Presidents Obama and Bush both<a href=\"https:\/\/www.brookings.edu\/opinions\/continuity-and-change-faith-based-partnerships-under-obama-and-bush\/\"> had<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2010\/12\/obamas-stimulus-pours-millions-into-faith-based-groups-045897\"> extensive<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/BL-WB-40023\"> records<\/a> of relying on faith-based initiatives to support their agendas, while Trump erected new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/feature\/nbc-out\/new-religious-freedom-division-sows-fears-lgbtq-discrimination-n839256\">barriers<\/a> to state interference with religious organizations.<\/p>\n<p>Collins then went on to disparage Trump personally, stating that \u201cevery aspect of that President\u2019s character seems to be the opposite of what an evangelical Christians would admire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As The Daily Wire previously<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/how-the-federal-government-used-evangelical-leaders-to-spread-covid-propaganda-to-churches\"> reported<\/a>, Collins has played a critical role in appealing to evangelical Christians to comply with federal COVID-19 policies due to his relationships with prominent Protestant leaders and his self-identification as an evangelical himself. Nevertheless, at the University of Chicago event, Collins called evangelicals\u2019 overwhelming support of Trump in the 2016 and 2020 elections \u201cdivisive,\u201d as well as being\u00a0a \u201cdevil\u2019s bargain\u201d that did \u201cgreat damage to the credibility of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At one point, Moore brought up Collins\u2019 work with Anthony Fauci, asking how they have \u201csomehow ended up the controversial figures.\u201d Collins did not mention <a href=\"https:\/\/denvergazette.com\/news\/fauci-shut-down-lab-leak-theory-despite-scientists-lending-it-credence-emails-show\/article_908df8b6-2161-5b7e-b7ed-003be942e341.html\">leaked emails<\/a> that showed the two colluded to suppress medical viewpoints they disapproved of or their ongoing push of COVID-19 restrictions or the underwhelming success of the vaccines at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/covid-data\/covidview\/index.html\">stopping the spread<\/a> of the virus. Instead, he replied that their increasing<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10398941\/Only-31-percent-Americans-trust-Faucis-COVID-advice-dire-poll-administration.html\"> unpopularity<\/a> is a result of the former President shifting blame in an attempt to deflect from the massive loss of life Trump ostensibly caused in the early stages of the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat harm was done to the people in this nation by a very, very self-involved and misguided president in the previous administration. Hundreds of thousands of people have died who should not have had to do so,\u201d Collins told the students, adding, \u201cAnd so there was an effort to try to distract from that dreadful circumstance by finding somebody else to blame.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In truth, as of December 18, 2021, more Americans have<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/its-official-more-americans-have-died-from-coronavirus-under-biden-than-trump-despite-biden-pledge-to-shut-down-the-virus\"> died<\/a> from COVID-19 under President Biden\u2019s administration than under Trump\u2019s, despite the fact Biden inherited multiple vaccines and other federal infrastructure to help mitigate the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n<p>Yet The Daily Wire was unable to find any reported instances of Collins criticizing Biden\u2019s handling of the pandemic or placing any blame on him for COVID-19 deaths that have occurred during his presidency.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Horns of the Dilemma<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Evangelical leaders like Moore have been<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/dreher\/evangelicals-who-are-good-bad-francis-collins-david-brooks\/\"> under<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/wng.org\/opinions\/decadence-on-display-1645449344\"> fire<\/a> since The Daily Wire<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/how-the-federal-government-used-evangelical-leaders-to-spread-covid-propaganda-to-churches\"> detailed<\/a> their praise and promotion of Collins despite his record of the NIH funding controversial transgender research on minors and experimentation on organs collected from aborted infants.\u00a0 Pundits like conservative talk show host Erick Erickson <a href=\"https:\/\/ewerickson.substack.com\/p\/im-going-to-regret-writing-this\">questioned<\/a> whether Collins had knowledge of such projects, given the vastness of the NIH.<\/p>\n<p>The University of Chicago event suggests that Collins was not only aware of such funding, but personally green lighted some of it, and that Moore, at least, had previous knowledge of his friend\u2019s professional history.<\/p>\n<p>When one of the students asked Collins about the NIH funding experiments such as University of Pittsburgh <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncregister.com\/news\/pro-lifers-speak-out-against-taxpayer-funded-experiments-using-aborted-fetal-body-parts\">studies<\/a> that involved harvesting body parts from babies at various stages of development and grafting infant scalps onto lab rats, Collins did not deny knowing about or green lighting such projects. He also did not say that he opposes abortion. Instead, he said that he is \u201ctroubled\u201d by abortion and made a case for the morality and efficacy of research based on aborted tissue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter all,\u201d he said, \u201cpregnancy termination is, at the present time, legal in the United States. Whether you\u2019re in support of it or not, it\u2019s happened \u2026 The material from those elective abortions is discarded. There are aspects of fetal tissue that can be extremely valuable in understanding how life works, how development happens, and how to treat certain diseases like Parkinson\u2019s disease, for instance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Collins the continued to press the argument that research derived from fetal tissue can be ethical.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFetal tissue is being discarded in large quantities every day,\u201d he said, \u201cIf there were a circumstance where, with consent of the mother, having been obtained after the abortion, not in any way as an inspiration to carry it forward, the abortion\u2026could ultimately help somebody. Which of those two choices is more ethical \u2014 discard all the tissue or use a small part? \u2026 Can you in fact, in some circumstances, even with actions that you consider immoral, derive something from it that might actually be moral and beneficial? That\u2019s the horns of the dilemma upon which I have been resting here for these 12 years as NIH Director, trying to oversee human fetal tissue research, which is something that I have to make decisions about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For his part, Moore gave no indication that he was not aware of Collins\u2019 background and views that diverge sharply from those of most pro-life activists and the mainstream evangelical Christians who make up Moore\u2019s primary following. Instead, Moore told the student, \u201cI don\u2019t have to agree with every Christian on everything in order to see the fruit of the Spirit in that person \u2026 Nonetheless, I can respect him as a Christian.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I reached out to both Moore and Collins for comment on the leaked audio. Moore\u2019s assistant said he would not be able to comment due to scheduling commitments, while Collins did not respond.<\/p>\n<p>Along with his new role as one of Biden\u2019s top science advisers, Collins is also now co-chairman of the President\u2019s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, a group the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/02\/17\/us\/politics\/biden-francis-collins-nih.html\"> New York Times<\/a> describes as \u201chigh-powered [experts] in fields as diverse as agriculture, biochemistry, ecology and nanotechnology. The President created the council in September to advise the White House on how to handle future pandemics, climate change and other global challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Francis Collins, appointed as President Biden\u2019s new science adviser on February 17, has consistently maintained that he plays a nonpartisan role<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1363057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1363057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1363057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1363057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1363057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1363057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}