Commenting on the issue, White House spokesperson Sarah Matthews said Trump consults with many health experts both inside and outside the federal government, who sometimes have different opinions on how to deal with the coronavirs outbreak.
Dr Robert Redfield, director of US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, is allegedly concerned that one doctor has been providing President Donald Trump with misleading information about the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, CNN reported, citing an unnamed federal official. The doctor in question is Scott Atlas, who recently became a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
On 27 September, NBC News reported that the head of the CDC was overheard talking about Scott Atlas during a phone call. “Everything he says is false”, Dr Redfield said as cited by NBC News. According to the network, the director of CDC is alarmed that Trump is sharing incorrect information provided to him by Dr Atlas with the public. The misleading information includes herd immunity, whether young people are susceptible to the virus, and questioning the efficiency of wearing masks.
Dr Redfield then acknowledged that he was talking about Dr Atlas. However, a CDC spokesman later said that NBC News was “reporting one side of a private conversation” by Dr Redfield. That same day the CDC apparently tried to smooth things out. The agency subsequently issued a statement saying that while the two have “different positions” on some issues, there are many things both doctors agree upon.
“The article quotes Dr Redfield as saying ‘Everything he says is false’ but it cannot supply the context for that statement since only one side of the private conversation being eavesdropped on was heard. Positions on three issues, the value of wearing a mask, youth COVID-19 infections, and where we are currently with herd immunity, are the positions that Dr Redfield has different positions on than Dr Atlas”, the CDC said in a statement.
A federal health official told CNN that the CDC director’s comments about Dr Atlas are “accurate”.
Who is Dr Atlas?
Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist and a healthcare policy expert, joined the White House Coronavirus Task Force in August. Prior to this, he frequently appeared on Fox News where he expressed views on the coronavirus that aligned with Trump’s. He spoke against lockdowns as a measure to curb the spread of the disease and privately advocated for herd immunity.
“It’s important for people to understand the medical science to know that natural human immunity of populations that is sometimes called herd immunity, it’s very important that that develops. That’s how viruses are eradicated”, Atlas said in March.
In response to the reports by CNN and NBC News Atlas said the following:
Commenting on the matter, White House spokesperson Sarah Matthews said Trump consults with many health experts both inside and outside the federal government, who sometimes have different opinions on how to deal with the outbreak.
The development comes as last week the United States, which has the highest number of cases (7.1 million) saw its death toll surpass the 200,000 mark. Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s leading expert on infectious diseases, said the country is reporting an “unacceptably high” number of new infectious every day. He stressed that many states have seen an uptick in hospitalisations, which could lead to more deaths. Donald Trump said that the government doesn’t plan to impose lockdowns to curb the spread of the disease.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
