Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, voiced serious concerns that Trump’s newest advisor on the coronavirus pandemic is feeding him false information that will extend and increase the extent of the pandemic, NBC News reports.
“Everything he says is false,” Redfield said about Dr. Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist and Fox “News” personality who now is serving as a White House advisor on the pandemic. Redfield was overheard by an NBC reporter while he was holding a cell phone call on a commercial flight. He later acknowledged he was speaking about Redfield.
Atlas has claimed various ideas that public health and virologists have dismissed as too dangerous or ineffective. Atlas has pushed the idea of “herd immunity,” which would likely cost the lives of millions of Americans.
Trump has then touted the ideas–he called for “herd mentality” during a town hall in Pennsylvania two weeks ago–without fully understanding the impact of these programs.
Atlas is not a public health professional or a virologist who would have experience in dealing with pandemics. He’s a neuroradiologist, a doctor who peruses x-rays, MRI and other imaging of the brain and nervous system.