During the early days of the pandemic, former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins became a familiar voice steering the country through an unprecedented public health crisis. Now, he is going through his own health crisis, an aggressive form of prostate cancer. By talking about it publicly he hopes to draw attention to routine screening.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at considerthis@npr.org.
As he prepares to leave his post of 12 years, Francis Collins reflects on the agency s biomedical advances, the dangers of polarizing medicine, and the huge health gaps that still exist in the U.S.