Trump COVID Advisor Scott Atlas: It’s Grandma’s Last Thanksgiving!

Trump COVID-19 advisor Scott Atlas, MD, is not an epidemiologist or an infectious disease expert. He’s a renowned expert in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Dr. Atlas has no pandemic expertise and hasn’t practiced medicine in 10 years, but he’s a fellow in Health Care Policy at Stanford’s conservative Hoover Institution and bloviates on Fox News, so he’s the go-to White House medico. When it comes to coronavirus, Dr. Atlas wants to let lots of people get it to bring about “herd immunity.” Real pandemic experts estimate it would require the deaths of 2 million Americans to achieve “herd immunity” in the U.S.

That hasn’t deterred Dr. Atlas. He says Americans aren’t doing enough to collaborate with the virus. They should ditch those masks, ignore advice on social distancing, and celebrate at the table with Grandma, bringing about her “last Thanksgiving.”

Many of his former medical colleagues are appalled, and Stanford University is distancing itself from Dr. Atlas. No so Mr. Trump.

More:

“On Fox News, Dr. Scott Atlas encourages large holiday gatherings: ‘For many people this is their last Thanksgiving,’” Media Matters

“Trump adviser Scott Atlas criticizes plans to avoid seeing elderly for Thanksgiving,” Brett Samuels, The Hill

“Trump COVID Adviser Scott Atlas Is on a Hot Streak of Dumb Ideas,” Matt Stieb, New York Magazine

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Trump Spreads Virus. Dr. Atlas Spreads ‘Pixie Dust & Pseudoscience.”

Trump virus advisor Scott Atlas knows MRIs, not viruses.

Donald Trump found Dr. Scott Atlas on Fox News and put him on the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Dr. Atlas is not an epidemiologist or an infectious disease expert, he’s an expert in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). As far as we know, Dr. Atlas has not imaged the presidential noggin.

Scott Atlas is also a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a think tank devoted to the free-market bloviation used by the wealthy to justify an ugly economic Social Darwinism. True to form, Dr. Atlas hates face masks, and contact testing, wants to reopen schools, and bring about “herd immunity.”

Michael Osterholm, an actual infectious-disease expert, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” yesterday that the “herd immunity” theory promoted by Dr. Atlas is “the most amazing combination of pixie dust and pseudo science I’ve ever seen.”

“Herd immunity” strategy failed in Sweden, and experts estimate it would require infection of up to 70% of the U.S. population and the deaths of 2 million Americans to achieve “herd immunity” in the U.S. without a vaccine. Biomedical researcher William A. Haseltine says “Herd immunity is another word for mass murder.”