For top U.S. virus experts, faith and science work together

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FILE - In this Thursday, April 16, 2020 file photo, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield, left, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, depart after accompanying President Donald Trump as he speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. Faith and science are both under unprecedented pressures during a pandemic that’s asked them to deliver comfort or certainty — while at times straining their relationship. But for some leaders of the U.S. pandemic response, the two have worked in concert. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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NEW YORK (AP) — While faith and science face unprecedented challenges during the coronavirus pandemic, including to their relationship with each other, the two have worked in concert for several experts leading the U.S. government’s pandemic response. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins founded a nonprofit focused on “the harmony between science and biblical faith.” Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, describes his faith and his public health work as mutually reinforcing. Anthony Fauci, NIH’s senior infectious disease specialist, isn’t involved in organized religion but has credited his Jesuit schooling with burnishing the values that drive his public service.