Trump makes call for new White House doctor's virus advice
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Trump makes call for new White House doctor's virus advice
August 16, 2020, 9:58 AM EDTTrump last week announced that Dr. Scott Atlas , a frequent guest on Fox News Channel, has joined the White House as a pandemic adviser. Atlas, the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center and a fellow at Stanford's conservative Hoover Institution, has no expertise in public health or infectious diseases.
But he has long been a critic of coronavirus lockdowns and has campaigned for kids to return to the classroom and for the return of college sports, just like Trump.
“Scott is a very famous man who’s also very highly respected," Trump told reporters as he introduced the addition. “He has many great ideas and he thinks what we’ve done is really good.”
Atlas' hiring comes amid ongoing tensions between the president and Drs. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, and Deborah Birx, the task force's coordinator. While Birx remains closely involved in the administration's pandemic response, both she and Fauci have publicly contradicted the rosy picture the president has painted of a virus that has now killed more than 167,000 people in the United States and infected millions nationwide.
Atlas, the sole doctor to share the stage at Trump's pandemic briefings this past week, has long questioned polices that have been embraced by public health experts both in the U.S. and abroad. He has called it a “good thing” for younger, healthy people to be exposed to the virus, while falsely claiming children are at near “zero risk."
In an April op-ed in The Hill newspaper, Atlas bemoaned that lockdowns may have prevented the development of “natural herd immunity."
“In the absence of immunization, society needs circulation of the virus, assuming high-risk people can be isolated," he wrote.
In television appearances, Atlas has called on the nation to “get a grip" and argued that “there’s nothing wrong" with having low-risk people get infected, as long as the vulnerable are protected.
“It doesn't matter if younger, healthier people get infected. I don't know how often that has to be said. They have nearly zero risk of a problem from this," he said in one appearance . “When younger, healthier people get infected, that's a good thing," he went on to say, "because that's exactly the way that population immunity develops.”
While younger people are certainly at far lower risk of developing serious complications from the virus, they can still spread it to others who may be more vulnerable, even when they have no symptoms. And while their chances of dying are slim, some do face severe complications, with one study finding that 35% of young adults had not returned to normal health two weeks to three weeks after testing positive.
But Atlas' thinking closely aligns with Trump's perspective on the virus, which he has played down since its earliest days. While Trump eventually supported the lockdowns that once helped slow the disease's spread, he has since pressured states to reopen schools and businesses as he tries to revive a battered economy before the November election.
Public health experts have long bemoaned Trump's efforts to politicize the virus and have encouraged him to let doctors and scientists lead the nation's response. But they questioned the decision to bring on Atlas, whose expertise is in magnetic resonance imaging and whose research has focused on factors impacting health care policy.
“I think he's utterly unqualified to help lead a COVID response," said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University law professor who specializes in public health. “His medical degree isn’t even close to infectious diseases and public health and he has no experience in dealing with public health outbreaks.”
“Its very clear to me," Gostin added, "that the president brought on somebody who will just be a mouthpiece for his agenda and a ‘yes’ person." Gostin expressed concern that Trump was sidelining other doctors, including Birx and Fauci, because he had soured on their advice.
“In the face of an epidemic that’s killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, that’s unforgivable," he said. "You want clear independent advice from people with long experience in fighting novel pandemics and he has none of those credentials.”
Kavita Patel, a primary care physician and health policy expert who served in the Obama White House, said there’s little that can prepare a doctor for the crucible of a presidential staff, let alone working for the famously volatile Trump.
“I expect Dr. Atlas’ time will be marked with highs and lows and hopefully he will realize that the country really needs credible expertise and guidance, not partisan bias," said Patel. “By being partisan or political while having such an important (role), doctors undermine their credibility and ultimately dilute the role of science."
White House spokesman Judd Deere, in a statement, praised Atlas as “a world renowned physician and scholar” and dismissed questions about Atlas' qualifications.
“We are all in this fight together, and only the media would distort and diminish Dr. Atlas’ highly acclaimed career simply because he has come to serve the President,” he said.
Deere declined to say how long Atlas, who is now a paid special government employee, has been advising the president, and insisted his addition would not diminish the roles of Fauci and Birx.
Paul E. Peterson, director of the program on education policy and governance at Harvard University and a senior fellow at Hoover with Atlas, praised Atlas as “a really brilliant guy" with “a tremendous knowledge base” about the virus. Peterson said Atlas is someone who conducts ”the most rigorous and careful research before he comes to a conclusion."
Some colleagues have found Atlas abrasive. But Peterson, who has written several op-eds with Atlas advocating the reopening of schools and who appeared with Atlas at a White House event this past week, praised Atlas as “delightful to work with” and stressed the value of Trump having input from people with a variety of backgrounds.
“If you get a variety of people from one perspective or one kind of training out there, that’s not desirable," he said. "It’s extremely important to have diversity on the advisory board."
Tags
Who is online
185 visitors
Trump last week announced that Dr. Scott Atlas , a frequent guest on Fox News Channel, has joined the White House as a pandemic adviser. Atlas, the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center and a fellow at Stanford's conservative Hoover Institution, has no expertise in public health or infectious diseases.
But he has long been a critic of coronavirus lockdowns and has campaigned for kids to return to the classroom and for the return of college sports, just like Trump.
“Scott is a very famous man who’s also very highly respected," Trump told reporters as he introduced the addition. “He has many great ideas and he thinks what we’ve done is really good.”
Atlas' hiring comes amid ongoing tensions between the president and Drs. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases expert, and Deborah Birx, the task force's coordinator. While Birx remains closely involved in the administration's pandemic response, both she and Fauci have publicly contradicted the rosy picture the president has painted of a virus that has now killed more than 167,000 people in the United States and infected millions nationwide.
Atlas, the sole doctor to share the stage at Trump's pandemic briefings this past week, has long questioned polices that have been embraced by public health experts both in the U.S. and abroad. He has called it a “good thing” for younger, healthy people to be exposed to the virus, while falsely claiming children are at near “zero risk."
In an April op-ed in The Hill newspaper, Atlas bemoaned that lockdowns may have prevented the development of “natural herd immunity."
“In the absence of immunization, society needs circulation of the virus, assuming high-risk people can be isolated," he wrote.
In television appearances, Atlas has called on the nation to “get a grip" and argued that “there’s nothing wrong" with having low-risk people get infected, as long as the vulnerable are protected.
“It doesn't matter if younger, healthier people get infected. I don't know how often that has to be said. They have nearly zero risk of a problem from this," he said in one appearance . “When younger, healthier people get infected, that's a good thing," he went on to say, "because that's exactly the way that population immunity develops.”
This guy is touting DEADLY ADVICE.
Herd immunity DOESN'T WORK WITH CO-VID 19.
You're spouting false information.
“In the absence of immunization, society needs circulation of the virus, assuming high-risk people can be isolated," he wrote.
Other than being more contagious because it's a new variation, this virus is not all that much different than any other.
It's now the third leading cause of death in the US. It's considerably different than other viruses.
No, this moron is spouting false information.
So are these morons...............
A little of his credentials?
So no credentials in infectious diseases or immunology.
Another tRump ass kisser.
HERD IMMUNITY DOESN'T WORK WITH CO-VID 19.
But if I had migraines I would definitely ask Atlas to read my Xrays or MRIs, that's what he was good at.
he's already giving me a headache
So the fuck what . . . .
Dr. Mengele was also an excellent surgeon. His thought process and moral fiber were in question.
EARLY HERD IMMUNITY AGAINST COVID-19: A DANGEROUS MISCONCEPTION
Bloomberg School of Public Health epidemiologists David Dowdy and Gypsyamber D'Souza explain the misconceptions around herd immunity as we discuss when and how to phase in re-opening.
We have listened with concern to voices erroneously suggesting that herd immunity may “soon slow the spread” 1 of COVID-19. For example, Rush Limbaugh 2 recently claimed that “herd immunity has occurred in California.” As infectious disease epidemiologists, we wish to state clearly that herd immunity against COVID-19 will not be achieved at a population level in 2020, barring a public health catastrophe.
Although more than 2.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide, studies suggest that (as of early April 2020) no more than 2-4% 3–5 of any country’s population has been infected with SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus that causes COVID-19). Even in hotspots like New York City that have been hit hardest by the pandemic, initial studies suggest that perhaps 15-21% 6,7 of people have been exposed so far. In getting to that level of exposure, more than 17,500 of the 8.4 million people in New York City (about 1 in every 500 New Yorkers) have died, with the overall death rate in the city suggesting deaths may be undercounted and mortality may be even higher. 8
Some have entertained the idea of “controlled voluntary infection,” 9 akin to the “chickenpox parties” of the 1980s. However, COVID-19 is 100 times more lethal than the chickenpox. For example, on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, the mortality rate among those infected with SARS-CoV-2 was 1%. Someone who goes to a “coronavirus party” to get infected would not only be substantially increasing their own chance of dying in the next month, they would also be putting their families and friends at risk. COVID-19 is now the leading cause of death in the United States, killing almost 2,000 Americans every day.8 Chickenpox never killed more than 150 Americans in a year. 9
To reach herd immunity for COVID-19, likely 70% or more of the population would need to be immune. Without a vaccine, over 200 million Americans would have to get infected before we reach this threshold. Put another way, even if the current pace of the COVID-19 pandemic continues in the United States – with over 25,000 confirmed cases a day – it will be well into 2021 before we reach herd immunity. If current daily death rates continue, over half a million Americans would be dead from COVID-19 by that time.
As we discuss when and how to phase in re-opening, 10 it is important to understand how vulnerable we remain. Increased testing will help us better understand the scope of infection, but it is clear this pandemic is still only beginning to unfold.
References
McKay H. Will “herd immunity” work against coronavirus? Fox News. . Published March 23, 2020. Accessed April 23, 2020.
Two Stories Indicate Coronavirus Herd Immunity. Rush Limbaugh Show. . Accessed April 23, 2020.
Flaxman S, Mishra S, Gandy A, et al. Report 13: Estimating the Number of Infections and the Impact of Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions on COVID-19 in 11 European Countries.; 2020. doi:10.25561/77731
Bendavid E, Mulaney B, Sood N, et al. COVID-19 Antibody Seroprevalence in Santa Clara County, California. medRxiv. April 2020:2020.04.14.20062463. doi:10.1101/2020.04.14.20062463
Reuters. Dutch study suggests 3% of the population has coronavirus antibodies. Mail Online. . Published April 16, 2020. Accessed April 23, 2020.
Retter R. Surprising number of pregnant women at NYC hospitals test positive for COVID-19. livescience.com. . Accessed April 23, 2020.
Lucking L. Coronavirus antibodies found in 21% of New Yorkers in early testing. MarketWatch. . Accessed April 28, 2020.
Katz J, Sanger-Katz M. N.Y.C. Deaths Reach 6 Times the Normal Level, Far More Than Coronavirus Count Suggests. The New York Times. . Published April 27, 2020. Accessed April 28, 2020.
How “Chickenpox Parties” Could Turn The Tide Of The Wuhan Virus. . Accessed April 23, 2020.
White House and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center
So is the new Doc going to support Trump's latest idea to "cure" his constituents with Oreandrin ?
Personally, I prefer sticking pins in little Covid-19 dolls as the best treatment.
He must have stock in it, like tRump and hydroxychloroquine.
Herd immunity works—if you don’t care how many people die
July 27, 2020 2:00 PM EDT
From Wall Street to Main Street, much hope in the COVID-19 crisis has been placed on “herd immunity,” the idea that a sufficient number of people will eventually develop antibodies to stop virus spread and curtail the pandemic. That thinking is behind President Donald Trump’s insisting , “The virus will disappear. It will disappear.”
The Swedish government chose to pursue herd immunity during the spring when COVID-19 overwhelmed many European nations, favoring voluntary control measures over strict lockdown procedures. This week, 21 Swedish infectious diseases experts denounced the policy, writing, “In Sweden, the strategy has led to death, grief, and suffering, and on top of that there are no indications that the Swedish economy has fared better than in many other countries. At the moment, we have set an example for the rest of the world on how not to deal with a deadly infectious disease.”
The United Kingdom also flirted with a herd immunity strategy in March, but it soon backtracked as the death toll rose and Prime Minister Boris Johnson was hospitalized with COVID-19.
In a democracy, humans have free will, including the ability to choose to do idiotic things that put themselves and others at high risk for infection . They chafe at restriction, bridle at confinement, and often defy the best interests of the herd.
A study of blood samples collected this spring in 10 U.S. cities found the highest seropositivity rate, 22.7%, was in New York City at its March/April epidemic peak. The city’s chief medical officer , Jay Varma, says, however, that this antibody rate offers no solace, since “herd immunity is a very unlikely explanation…We’re not nearly at a level where we would expect that immunity would play a major role in decreasing transmission.”
Moreover, a positive result on an antibody test does not guarantee protective immunity; the detected antibodies may be neither strong enough to counter the virus nor targeted appropriately. It seems paradoxical, but the strongest antibody responses are seen in the sickest patients, including those who die. People with asymptomatic or mild infections usually develop weak responses.
The common perception that someone who recovered quickly had strong antibodies that “beat the virus” is flawed. It’s unknown whether the weaker antibody responses are protective against reinfection, and we’re still foggy on how T cell immunity kicks in. Isolated cases are increasingly reported of individuals who survived COVID-19, tested negative for the virus, and then weeks later were reinfected and took ill. These cases are rare but may become more common.
The key issue is duration : How long does immunity to SARS-CoV-2 last? We are still very early in this pandemic. No studies have tracked immune responses in people for much longer than three months. Results are mixed. In New York City, local researchers say people seem to still be robustly immune after three months. But a London study saw immunity waning strongly over that period, and in the Chinese district of Wanzhou, 40% of asymptomatically infected people and 12.9% of COVID-19 cases rapidly became antibody-negative .
If herd immunity via infections is off the table, the world needs a vaccine. Several Operation Warp Speed (a public-private program designed to speed up COVID-19 vaccine development and distribution) vaccine candidates have elicited antibodies and T cells in human trials, but it’s too early to tell whether any will protect against infection or reduce the severity of disease. Only large-scale efficacy trials can provide those much-needed answers. However, the urgency of the pandemic and other pressures will probably mean that vaccines will be approved for mass use well before we know their duration of protection. Nobody wants to wait a full year to see if immunity is sustained for 70% of the human herd.
It is quite foreseeable that immunity to the first approved COVID-19 vaccines will diminish over time, requiring frequent booster injections.
Of course, a vaccine can only confer herd immunity if it is widely used. Opinion surveys show many American “herd” members have already decided to reject a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. Polling results in May found only 49% would take it, and 31% were unsure, while 20% would refuse a vaccine under any circumstances. A July survey found similarly sobering results. A scientific task force has warned that the Operation Warp Speed vaccine effort “rests upon the compelling yet unfounded presupposition that ‘if we build it, they will come.’”
To boost public confidence, it is essential that vaccines are approved only after both efficacy and safety are rigorously proved. Any rushed political interventions and election year politics that compromise safety assessments could render mass immunization impossible by further fostering public distrust.
This killer coronavirus will not simply “disappear” as long as human behavior allows it to spread within the herd . A Wall Street miracle , where powerful, lasting immunity emerges en masse and allows the world economy to return to its 2019 ways, is delusional. Until a vaccine or multiple vaccines are developed and used on a global scale to confer herd immunity, human beings must exercise free will to protect themselves and the rest of the human herd by using masks, social distancing, and good old-fashioned common sense.
Laurie Garrett is a Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer, author of Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health and other books, and a science contributor for MSNBC News.
John Moore is a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine who has conducted research on HIV and, more recently, SARS-CoV-2, neutralizing antibodies, and spike glycoproteins.
But all Trump supporters will see is the contradiction where you said "herd immunity doesn't work with Co-Vid 19".
Technically, it would work, you'd just have to accept that the US will sacrifice about 10 million Americans on our way to 90%+ virus exposure.
What you may not be aware of, though it's becoming increasingly apparent, is that many Trump supporters don't care how many people die as long as it's not them. As long as they see it killing Americans in big cities, liberals, progressives and vulnerable minority groups who have systemically had less access to healthcare, they couldn't give two shits about those Americans. And some, I believe, aren't just indifferent but ecstatic at the idea of millions of minority and liberal Americans dying. Some are so screwed up in the head they see fellow Americans dying as just fulfillment of their fantasy wished for Armageddon. Personally, even though I'm obviously ideologically opposed to every right wing Christian evangelical and extremist white nationalist, I don't want them to get sick and die. I'd rather they simply follow common sense, wear a mask in public, social distance and stay away from large gatherings.
large gatherings, and, reproducing.
"What is a conservative Southern family reunion?"
"I'll take "It's all relative" for $600 Alex"...
just B Cuz !
d
that's what i herd
If Dr. Atlas was as upstanding and Hippocratic as some claim he is he would not be in association with NY flim flam man, Donald J. Trump.