Controversial radiologist Scott Atlas still dispensing COVID-19 advice in Florida
Months after stepping down from a prominent position advising the White House about the pandemic, neuroradiologist Scott Atlas, MD, is back influencing public policy related to the novel coronavirus.
The Stanford fellow recently took part in a panel assembled by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to discuss the public health crisis. In response to questions from the Sunshine State chief, Atlas reiterated his criticisms of lockdowns and other measures.
“There’s no evidence that a mask mandate has worked,” he said at a March 18 roundtable, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “And in fact, there is evidence that people in the United States have been wearing masks for months and the cases exploded, whether it’s in certain states like Hawaii, Minnesota.”
His statements run counter to advice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which says masks reduce the risk of spreading or contracting COVID-19, the Sentinel noted. Atlas has no background in infectious disease and his guidance has been criticized by fellow neuroradiologists, Stanford colleagues, and the CDC director.
Atlas was joined on the panel by other scientists who have backed DeSantis’ approach to the pandemic, the Sentinel noted. Those included Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University and Martin Kulldorff, professor of medicine and a specialist in cancer data science at Harvard. Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the state’s top-ranking Democrat, criticized the event.
“The only way Dr. Scott Atlas should be involved in our pandemic response is as example of falsehoods which should be ignored by the public,” she said according to the report.
Read more from the South Florida Sun Sentinel below.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.