Neuroradiologist Scott Atlas, a member of the White House Coronavirus Working Group and a neuroradiologist, was criticized by many mainstream American media on the 1st. The main reason was that he received a remote interview with Russia Today (RT) at the White House the day before. Register as a “foreign agent” in the United States.
Atlas has no experience in the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, and continues to promote remarks such as “masks are useless”. The Washington Post published an exclusive interview with Anthony Fauci, the US “captain of the pandemic” on October 31, during which Fauci violently criticized Atlas’ remarks as “not tenable.”
[“Closing the city” killing? 】
According to RT, Atlas is currently Trump’s “chief anti-pandemic advisor.” On October 31, he received an interview with RT for about 27 minutes at the White House, saying that the “closing the city” pandemic prevention measures taken by the US public health department was an “epic failure.”
Atlas said that the United States has “serious dereliction of duty in the public health leadership”, “they are causing deaths due to the panic-causing measures to lock down the city”, and “stopping the spread of Coronavirus at all costs” is a “crazy” move. He believes that Americans have experienced many problems such as rising suicide rates and drug abuse due to “closing the city”. Wearing masks and other pandemic prevention measures will make children and adolescents “nervous.” He also declared that “masks are useless” and did not support virus testing for people who did not show symptoms of Coronavirus.
Atlas was appointed by Trump in August this year to join the White House Anti-pandemic Working Group. A high-level White House official clarified to CNN on the 1st that the White House did not approve Atlas to accept an RT interview. His appearance at RT caused the White House officials to be uneasy.
According to CNN, Atlas’ remarks have caused controversy many times. US social media Twitter deleted a tweet from Atlas in October for violating the “misleading information related to the pandemic” policy. This tweet said, “Are masks useful? No!”, in an attempt to deny the effectiveness of wearing masks. At the end of August, Atlas and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called out to public health officials in the state, demanding fewer large-scale virus tests and more efforts to restart the economy and reopen schools.
[US media “Fryer”]
Once the interview was broadcast, it immediately caused an uproar in the American media. Senior reporters from several mainstream media such as “Political News”, “Washington Post” and National Broadcasting Corporation have spoken out, condemning Atlas for accepting interviews with Russian media regarded as “foreign agents”.
The US Department of Justice requires RT’s branches in the United States to register as “Russian government agents”, stating that RT is controlled by the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti and used by the Russian government to make political propaganda to the American people. However, the RT branch in the United States stated in the “foreign agent” registration document that they are intended to “inform rather than influence” and “are not committed to benefiting foreign governments or parties primarily.”
In the face of public opinion waves, Atlas was forced to apologize on the 1st, but said that he accepted the interview because he did not know that RT was a “foreign agent.” This statement was quickly criticized for “lying.” Some people ridiculed Atlas for not knowing what the abbreviation of RT is. Others questioned that Atlas violated a number of counterintelligence regulations because RT actually contacted the White House consultant directly, but the latter did not report it.
While the media mostly focused on “foreign agents,” some people also pointed out the dangers of Atlas’ speech itself. “The Christian Science Monitor” reporter Dan Murphy believes that Atlas’ “fatal Trump-style propaganda” is “not qualified” whether it is broadcast on RT or Fox.
[Fauci “Blasted”]
Atlas was also “fired” by Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases last weekend. In an interview with The Washington Post, Fauci bluntly stated that there is “really a problem” between him and Atlas.
Fauci said that Atlas had “no real insight, knowledge or experience” about what it preached. If you carefully analyze the “things he keeps talking about”, those comments “do not hold water at all.”
Fauci estimates that if Coronavirus pandemic rages in the United States according to the current situation, the daily increase in confirmed cases may exceed 100,000, and the number of deaths in the next few weeks will also increase. However, the White House Anti-pandemic Working Group currently meets far less frequently than before, and the only person “with regular contact with the President” is Atlas.
Fauci said that Atlas publicly denied supporting the “herd immunity” theory, but endorsed the “Great Barrington Declaration” drafted by some epidemiologists in the United States and Britain in early October. This open letter calls for the Coronavirus to spread “freely” among healthy young people. Fauci believes that if Atlas’ comments are put together, “everything points to a concept”, that is, “infection does not matter, (pandemic prevention) is just a waste of time, masks are useless”.
In response, White House spokesman Judd Deere stated that Fauci intends to “play politics” on the eve of the presidential election.
