‘Not A Moment Too Soon’: Medical Pros Celebrate Atlas’ Resignation As COVID Adviser

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 12: White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott Atlas, speaks during a TV interview with OAN on October 12, 2020 in Washington, DC (Photo by Oliver Contreras/For The Washington Post)
WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 12: White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott Atlas, speaks during a TV interview with OAN on October 12, 2020 in Washington, DC (Photo by Oliver Contreras/For The Washington Post via Getty Images)
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Doctors and health experts celebrated Dr. Scott Atlas’ resignation as the President’s COVID-19 adviser on Monday, suggesting that Atlas’ controversial takes on the pandemic response had contributed to a mounting coronavirus-related death toll in the United States that has now reached roughly 268,000.

President Donald Trump had tapped Atlas as an adviser on the pandemic in August after he emerged repeatedly on Fox News as a kind of celebrity scientist. A radiologist, who now serves as a senior fellow at a libertarian-leaning think tank at Stanford University, Atlas suggested in his resignation letter on Monday that he had “always relied on the latest science and evidence, without any political consideration or influence.”

Yet many experts have pointed out that the Hoover Institute fellow, whose own academic home distanced itself from his bogus claims, has no formal background in infectious disease — typically a requirement for a scientist serving in a capacity to provide advising on pandemic response.

Atlas’ resignation, which he posted to Twitter on Monday night, was promptly met by ridicule from colleagues in the scientific community who celebrated his departure:

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