President Trump found a new medical adviser for the White House coronavirus task force, a perfect fit

 Trump would like to say to Dr. Anthony Fauci “you are fired”, but he knows better not to do it because of the potential repercussion and backfire.  He found the alternative by hiring Dr. Scott Atlas as a new medical adviser for the White House coronavirus task force, it is a perfect fit.

If one wonders why such an excellent doctor and scholar in academic medicine would embrace views that align with that of President Trump when it comes to the management of this horrendous pandemic. (Dr. Atlas served as the head of the neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center from 1998 to 2012, specializing in MRI, currently a senior fellow in health care policy at Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University.  He is the editor of Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain and Spine, a leading textbook in the field.)

Biased thought it may be, I’ll offer my analysis.  I am hoping you will find it fair, reasonable and credible.

1. Like Trump, he has no empathy (I do not know him enough to say whether he is narcissistic or not.) He said for young people to get Covid-19 is a good thing, if fact, he wants about 60% of people in the community to get infected, thus producing antibody.  He lamented the lockdown prevented natural herd immunity from happening.  Without empathy he cannot feel the pain that how many Americans have to die or suffer.

2. Like trump, he belittles the threat of the pandemic, ridiculing the “hysteria” surrounding the coronavirus, such as parents’ concern and worry for kids going to schools.  In a 4/13/2020 article published in The Hill, he wrote, “with a world-wide sense of relief, progress continues containing the COVID-19 pandemic.”  He also wrote that aside from New York, the vast majorities of American hospitals were not overwhelmed beyond capacity.  The summer surge in the sun belt states proves his prediction was wrong and overly optimism unwarranted.

3. Like Trump, he has no respect of the expertise of others’ fields.  Trump once said he knows more about NATO than Marine Corp General Mattis who once served as the NATO Supreme Allied Commander.  Dr. Atlas is an expert in MRI medicine and health care policy, but he has no experience in dealing with infectious disease, let alone pandemic.  Like Trump, he treated Dr. Fauci as an alarmist.

4. Like Trump, Dr. Atlas advocates "safely" reopening the economy and schools in a hurry and wants the college sports back now.  The University of North Carolina was just forced to cancel in-person classes after at least 130 students tested positive in the first week of the semester.

American media can be biased reporting the radical views of Dr. Atlas.  I came across an article in a German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine (8/17/2020), with a title of “Sie simulieren Wissenschaft” (they feign/fake science), the title picture of the article shows a picture of Dr. Scott Atlas, one can see “corona-pseudoexperten” (corona-pseudo experts). Unfortunately this article is not a free access without subscription, I can only read the first few paragraphs, which are about pseudo experts on climate change. I cannot tell you what they said about Dr. Atlas, but based on the title and the picture of the article, they most likely consider him a pseudo expert as Trump’s adviser.  Even his own university (Stanford U) has backed off plans to offer in-person classes this fall.

While talking about President Trump, German media are no less critical than New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC.  This article is just an example.

In my view, a doctor of his repute and caliber, Dr. Atlas’ radical approach in dealing with this pandemic is irresponsible (some said "naive"), or even reckless, and could do damage to the society.