The unscientific attack on the science of Dr Scott Atlas

[Anonymous]

I'll reserve my opinion on the the science Dr Scott Atlas has proposed for dealing with COVID-19. But, lock downs are only a delay of the inevitable. But, we should be looking at what non Western countries are doing and listening to a variety of medical opinions.



By Victor Davis Hanson



The news media until recently had rarely criticized the medical advice of experts — especially those who worked for federal bureaucracies, international organizations or elite universities.



Yet the much- praised Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, has demonstrably weakened the effort to fight COVID-19.



During the critical initial weeks of the virus's spread, Tedros parroted Chinese propaganda.



He falsely assured a complacent world that the virus was likely not transmissible between humans and did not warrant travel bans. That Tedros was the first WHO director not to have a medical degree was seldom cited by the media.



Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is known to the public for his past advocacy of the Obama administration's Affordable Care Act. Although he now advises 77- year- old presidential candidate Joe Biden, Emanuel once wrote an article for The Atlantic titled "Why I hope to die at 75," contending that that life after age 75 is, and should be, mostly over — now an eerie idea in a time of a pandemic that targets the elderly.



Emanuel has often weighed in on the COVID-19 pandemic, sometimes in overly pessimistic fashion by suggesting that some acquired collective immunity and a viable vaccine were not likely to come soon.



Yet Emanuel also has been largely exempt from media criticism. No reporters have questioned his epidemiological expertise despite his background as an oncologist specializing in breast cancer.



The esteemed Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has given conflicting advice on the use of masks, quarantining and the methods of viral transmission. Yet such inconsistency is either ignored or chalked up by the media to the usual learning curve of dealing with a new epidemic.



So why — other than politics — is there now a concerted media attack on Dr. Scott Atlas, an adviser to the Trump administration on COVID-19 policy?



Atlas has had a distinguished career as one of world's top neuroradiologists. He has become a national expert on public health policy, especially in the cost-benefit analysis of government programs.



After COVID-19 arrived in the U. S., Atlas consistently warned that government must follow science, not politics, in doing the least amount of harm to its people. He has reminded us that those under 65 rarely die from COVID- 19, and that those infected who are younger than 20 usually do not show any serious symptoms.



Accordingly, Atlas has urged the states to focus more resources on the most vulnerable — those over 65, who account for the vast majority of COVID-19 deaths — and allow younger Americans to re-enter schools and the workforce with appropriate caution.



Atlas has also warned that the available test data on COVID-19's infectiousness, spread and morbidity must be handled with care, given that those who feel sick are more likely to get tested. He argues that those with some natural protection from the virus, either through antibodies from an asymptotic past infection or through T- cells, may be a far larger group than previously thought.



But most importantly, Atlas has warned that government must be careful not to endanger Americans with draconian lockdowns that curtail needed medical examinations, procedures and treatments.



Just as dangerous as the disease may be quarantine-related spikes in mental illness, substance abuse, child and spousal abuse, and depression from lost livelihoods. Children may be suffering irreparable harm from being locked down and kept out of school.



Atlas has shown that these policy choices unfortunately entail bad options and even worse ones, rather than good choices and even better alternatives. He has not played down the dangers of COVID- 19 but rather has reminded us to look at scientific data that often belies media sensationalism.



Many in the media, some of his former colleagues at Stanford Medical School and some other Stanford faculty members have claimed that Atlas — a colleague of mine at the Hoover Institution — has acted unprofessionally. They allege that he has downplayed the lethality of the virus, implying that he is aiding the administration's efforts to ease out of the quarantine.



Yet few if any of these complainants have cited supporting evidence, either from what Atlas has written or said. Often the accusations turn puerile, suggesting that Atlas can't be a public health expert because he was originally a neuroradiologist.



In fact, rarely reported is that many members of the Stanford community are honored by its medical school receiving global acclaim for its diversity of expert scientific opinion on the virus.



Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist Michael Levitt of Stanford, along with several stellar Stanford epidemiologists, have been praised worldwide for their careful critiques of often media-generated misconceptions — especially on the overreliance on COVID-19 positive test data to calibrate viral prevalence and morbidly.



How ironic that some critics fault Atlas for not following science, but they do so in a fashion that is completely ... well, unscientific.



Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won, from Basic Books

[Anonymous]

I have heard of Dr Atlas, but I didn't know anything about him.

[Anonymous]

Atlas has warned that government must be careful not to endanger Americans with draconian lockdowns that curtail needed medical examinations, procedures and treatments.

A morally repugnant side effect to prevent 20 seomethings from catching a cough.

[Gaon]

Israel is in another lock down. The country is a mess now.

[Anonymous]

I cringe when I hear Joe Biden claim he will be guided by the "science." The medical community has given contradictory advice and is far from united on lock downs.



Coping with COVID confusion



It was confusing enough when the federal public health agency reversed its position on mask wearing — on one day we were told it could do more harm than good, on the next it was a positive measure that could slow the spread of COVID-19.



Now it's a dog's breakfast of conflicting advice coming from federal, provincial and municipal governments, all saying they're acting on the best available medical advice.



Except the experts disagree, starting with the value of lockdowns weighed against the harm they're causing to the economy, mental health and the needs of non-COVID-19 patients.



As Sun columnist Brian Lilley succinctly summed up the confusing situation on Friday, based on conflicting advice and decisions from the federal, provincial (Ontario) and municipal (Toronto) governments: "If we listen to all the advice: Don't leave your home but maybe go to a restaurant, but only with those in your household, and on the way back swing by the airport and pick up grandma from her six-hour flight to Canada."



Sun columnist Anthony Furey reported on Toronto's medical officer of health calling for a return to strict lockdowns in the city on the same day the Ontario government reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases.



Except it wasn't a record because the provincial numbers included 73 cases in Toronto that happened months ago, "the result of data cleaning" that "do not represent new cases."



Given this confusion, each of us must play our part in fighting COVID-19, because governments can't do it all by themselves.



We continue to support wearing masks indoors, maintaining social distancing, avoiding touching your face with your hands, frequent hand-washing, coughing into your sleeve, staying at home when sick and avoiding lengthy stays in large crowds when indoors.



We also need better coordination of information coming from the three levels of government.



That said, the reality is this is a new coronavirus that we're still learning about, so medical experts will honestly disagree on the best ways to contain it.



We do recommend that political leaders should stop repeating the mantra that they're following the best medical advice.



The truth is these decisions are being made by governments weighing the often conflicting medical advice they're getting.

[Anonymous]

I don't mean to pick on the West's response to this pandemic, but Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, and some other Asian nations have not had this contradictory advice from the medical community.

[Anonymous]

Dr Anthony Fauci is as much of a useless idiot as Theresa Tam.

[media]