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Top U.S. Health Official Talks COVID-19

April 8, 2020

Francis Collins is a scientist who serves as director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. He is well known for leading the Human Genome Project. He is also a key player in the research to develop a vaccine for the COVID-19 pandemic. Collins is the author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief as well as the founder of BioLogos, an organization dedicated to studying the link between science and faith. Located near Calvin University, BioLogos sponsored a talk on Monday, Apr. 4, in which Collins answered questions about COVID-19.

Q: Does the speed that it took for the virus to get to North America surprise you?

A: If someone told me in December about the virus coming here so quickly, I would have been surprised. I couldn’t have imagined it. It was transported by so many people who didn’t even know they had it.

Q: What do we know about this virus so far?

A: It’s a simple little virus with only 30,000 letters in its genetic code. As humans, we have over three billion letters. But these are clever little cells that jump right in there and start attacking your lungs. They are like a lock and key, opening your lungs to the illness.

Q: When will there be a vaccine?

A: The big push right now is to treat people who have it. There are anecdotal reports of some drugs working, but it will take many months to determine how effective they are. We’ve already broken all of the records to get some of the drugs into clinical trials. We are currently running clinical trials here at the Institutes for Health. There is some interest in using the immune system of a person who has COVID-19 on someone who is sick with it. Perhaps those antibodies could kill the disease.

Q: Is there any evidence that this virus is mutating?

A: Not right now. The best evidence we still have is that it gets passed on in human droplets that come out as you are speaking — which is why it is so important, especially if someone suspects they have it, to wear a mask.

Q: There was a report that deaths in New York City were down. Might that mean they are flattening the curve and that this could be a sign that the pandemic will pass?

A: What we see is a glimmer of hope. If we keep sticking to these measures of self-isolating and keep interaction down, by sometime this summer we may be beyond it.

Q: Is medicine — finding the right drug — going to be the answer?

A. We are in trouble, and a lot of people are afraid right now. Maybe this is a God moment for us — a time when we really feel our weakness and we can turn to God for help, to fill the gap we are feeling. This is a time for prayer: for health care providers, families who have lost loved ones. [It’s a time of] economic distress. Pray that someone comes up with a vaccine. Pray that this can become a time when we get in touch with our spiritual nature.