Scott Atlas and Herd Immunity: Trump's COVID Advisor Who Contradicted Scientists

Overview

Scott Atlas is a neuroradiologist. He reads brain images. He has no training in infectious disease, epidemiology, or public health. In August 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, Trump appointed him to advise the White House on pandemic response because he had seen him on Fox News.

The scientists who had spent their careers studying infectious disease were sidelined. Atlas's advice was preferred.

The Herd Immunity Theory

The Great Barrington Declaration proposed allowing the virus to spread freely among young and healthy people while somehow protecting the elderly and vulnerable. The theory was not new — it had been the default approach before vaccines existed. Its application to COVID-19 faced a specific problem: the virus spread through asymptomatic transmission, making controlled spread practically impossible, and the vulnerable populations it would most harm were distributed throughout society, not in identifiable isolated communities.

The overwhelming consensus of epidemiologists rejected the approach. They did not reject it on political grounds. They rejected it because it would require accepting enormous numbers of preventable deaths among people who were not in a position to protect themselves.

The Stanford Letter

More than 80 faculty members from Atlas's own institution signed a letter publicly contradicting him. His colleagues. People who knew him personally. They wrote that his statements were contrary to science and potentially harmful.

The Outcome

Atlas served for approximately four months. He resigned after Biden's election. U.S. COVID deaths had exceeded 250,000 when he left. They would reach 400,000 by Inauguration Day.