Scott Atlas resigns as Trump's coronavirus adviser
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Scott Atlas resigns as Trump's coronavirus adviser
The radiologist with no previous infectious disease experience clashed with the administration's public health experts, who warned that Atlas was misleading Trump about the severity of the crisis.
White House coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas speaks during a Sept. 28 event with President Donald Trump about coronavirus testing in the Rose Garden. | AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Scott Atlas, the controversial physician who became President Donald Trump's hand-picked coronavirus adviser, resigned from the White House on Monday, an administration official confirmed to POLITICO.
Atlas, a radiologist with no previous experience fighting infectious disease, joined the White House in August after TV appearances on Fox News where he decried fears about Covid-19 as overblown. But Atlas — who won Trump's favor by repeatedly pitching the president on a rosier outlook about the worsening pandemic — clashed with the administration's public health experts, who warned that Atlas was misleading Trump about the severity of the crisis. Deborah Birx, an infectious disease specialist who had been tapped in February to serve as the White House's coronavirus coordinator, was increasingly marginalized this fall in favor of Atlas.
Senior medical experts also battled with Atlas after he appeared to advocate the concept of "herd immunity" — the controversial theory that the United States can quickly and safely achieve widespread immunity to the coronavirus by allowing it to spread unfettered among healthy people.
Atlas, a fellow at Stanford University's conservative Hoover Institution, has been repeatedly denounced by Stanford faculty, and the school sought to distance itself from his statements after Atlas downplayed the value of masks to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Fox News first reported Atlas' departure.
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The air goes out of another useless balloon.
Good riddence.
One of the "best" s/
He was only hired to back up trumps lies in the first place. As soon as the election was over, Atlas had out lived his usefulness to trumpy.
I would be curious to learn of the "extent" he provided any sort of "sound" advice he provided to the current administration during the Covid pandemic.