Scott Atlas resigned as what Politico called President Donald Trump’s “hand-picked coronavirus advisor” in late November 2020.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/30/scott-atlas-resigns-trump-adviser-441597
“I worked hard with a singular focus — to save lives and help Americans through this pandemic,” Atlas wrote in his letter of resignation that was first reported by Fox News.
Atlas added that he “always relied on the latest science and evidence, without any political consideration or influence.”
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dr-scott-atlas-resigns-special-adviser-trump-coronavirus
This wasn’t entirely true.
Nor was it partially true.
Trump’s selection of a radiologist – and not a scientist or immunologist or an epidemiologist – to be his personal coronavirus advisor is yet one more example of Trump putting someone in a position of influence based solely of their fawning praise of Trump and not whether they were qualified for the position.
Trump famously said: “I only hire the best people.”
Donald Trump: I only hire the best people.
— NowThis Impact (@nowthisimpact) June 20, 2023
Fox News' Bret Baier: Yeah, about that… pic.twitter.com/ueNolDqu0T
This wasn’t entirely true.
Or partially true.
Trump’s only knowledge, experience, or interest with infectious diseases was that he was – and remains — an infectious disease.
Trump, who was elected president as the pro-life candidate, acted with total disregard for human life. The only life Trump cares about is his own.
Trump failed in his response to the coronavirus pandemic because he had no idea what he was doing and ignored the advice of those who understood viruses. He did not care that his ignorance and narcissism would needlessly cause the deaths of so many people.
“It may never be known how many thousands of deaths, or millions of infections, might have been prevented with a response that was more coherent, urgent and effective,” the Washington Post reported in early April 2020. “But even now, there are many indications that the administration’s handling of the crisis had potentially devastating consequences.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/04/04/coronavirus-government-dysfunction/
The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March 2020.
Donald Trump, acting forcefully — with the full power of the office of presidency – went golfing.
When that didn’t stop the spread of COVID-19, Trump played again, and he played at least 25 times from the first reported death of an American from COVID-19 until more than 20 thousand Americans had died six months later.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-golfed-25-times-covid-19-spread-killed-over-200000-2020-9
And yet – in spite of Trump hour after hour on the golf course and ignoring the advice of infectious disease experts — people kept dying of the coronavirus.
Trump repeatedly told Americans – at least 38 times – during the first several weeks of the outbreak – that the coronavirus would disappear on its own.
“It’s going to disappear. One day — it’s like a miracle — it will disappear. And from our shores, we — you know, it could get worse before it gets better. It could maybe go away. We’ll see what happens. Nobody really knows.”
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2020/10/politics/covid-disappearing-trump-comment-tracker/
Yes, we do know what happens when a pandemic goes ignored?
More and more people died.
Trump golfed and more people died.
Trump lied and people died.
Every day Trump did nothing to address the pandemic and more people died.
Trump did not call for testing for the coronavirus. He did not address the shortage of masks, face shields, gowns and surgical gloves.
He did not call for a meeting of the best minds in science and medicine to address a crisis that would kill more than a million Americans.
Trump rejected the advice of medical experts in his administration, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx. He rejected the advice of international experts on infectious diseases, working at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Institutes for Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization, and top research universities.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/14/politics/donald-trump-anthony-fauci-science-coronavirus/index.html
Trump instead listened to a radiologist, Scott Atlas, the Robert Wesson Senior Fellow in health policy at the Hoover Institution.
Atlas, to his credit, is an international expert in radiology.
https://profiles.stanford.edu/scott-atlas
Atlas would have been your go-to-guy if tens of millions of people throughout the world suddenly tore their ACL and you needed someone to diagnose the injuries using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
“He’s an MRI guy. … He has no expertise in any of this stuff,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told NPR.
“He’s been bringing out arguments that have been refuted week after week, month after month, since the beginning of this outbreak,” Jha added.
https://www.npr.org/2020/11/30/940376041/dr-scott-atlas-special-coronavirus-adviser-to-trump-resigns
Trump instead chose Atlas, an “MRI guy,” a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, who had no experience in treating infectious diseases.
To quote Pepper Brooks, Jason Bateman’s sportscaster in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, “That’s a bold strategy . . . Let’s see if it pays off for them.”
Here’s where things took an even more deadly turn.
Trump selected Atlas not because of his qualifications as an infectious disease scientist.
No, that wasn’t it.
Trump selected Atlas because he had appeared on right-wing media and called for herd immunity, which meant allowing the virus to spread among the population.
This ran contrary to the advice of public health experts.
Or common sense.
CNN reported the following:
“Trump first noticed Atlas on Fox News, where he asserted it doesn’t matter ‘how many cases’ there are in the US, wrongly claimed those under 18 years old have ‘essentially no risk of dying,’ implied teachers who are at high risk for contracting Covid-19 should ‘know how to protect themselves,’ baselessly claimed ‘children almost never transmit the disease’ and without evidence blamed a rise in cases in southern states on protests and border crossings.’
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/12/politics/scott-atlas-donald-trump-coronavirus/index.html
Atlas was wrong.
The University of Oxford’s Department of Computer Science found that more than 1,300 U.S. children and young people 19 years old and younger have died of COVID-19.
“I’m an adviser,” Atlas said on Fox News when asked about his new role. “I was asked by the President to advise him and it’s obvious that the answer is, ‘Yes, sir, and any way I can help I will do so.’”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/12/politics/scott-atlas-donald-trump-coronavirus/index.html
No, no, no . . . that should not have been your answer.
Your answer should have been: “Mr. President, I’m flattered beyond words that you think I can help. But I simply do not have the qualifications you need. You should hire someone more qualified than me to address this deadly pandemic . . . like a podiatrist or a dentist.”
Remember the Hippocratic oath, Dr. Atlas.
“First do no harm” or “I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm.”
The Hill reported that emails from Fauci and Birx revealed that they considered Atlas’s views on COVID-19 to be “dangerous.”
Atlas’s Stanford University colleagues responded to Atlas’ influence in the Trump administration not with pride but with revulsion.
“What Atlas has done is an embarrassment to the university,” the Stanford Faculty Senate said in a resolution.
