Inside Dr. Scott Atlas' Resignation From The Trump Administration

The end of the Thanksgiving holiday has brought 13.4 million confirmed COVID-19 infections and over 267 thousand deaths (via AP). It has also brought the resignation of Scott Atlas, the controversial neuroradiologist, who had the ear of President Donald Trump on how to handle the COVID-19 outbreak. CNN reports that Atlas was considered a special government employee, and because of this, he only had 130 days to serve, and that period would've been closing this week. 

CNN also says Atlas' departure means his theories, which have been widely discredited, will no longer take center stage. And while in his letter, he said he had "worked hard with a singular focus — to save lives and help Americans through this pandemic," public health experts aren't sorry to see Atlas go. One emergency room doctor active on social media marked his departure with a tweet saying "You have done incalculable harm." Another doctor said, "Atlas is very much responsible for a lot of the nonsense that led to inaction in many GOP states that led to cases and hospitalizations and death." One lawyer shared a clip of Atlas with the caption: "History will treat this 'man' extremely harshly."

Even Dr. Anthony Fauci has said "I have real problems with that guy. He's a smart guy who's talking about things that I believe he doesn't have any real insight or knowledge or experience in. He keeps talking about things that when you dissect it out and parse it out, it doesn't make any sense," (via The Washington Post).

Scott Atlas is a neuroradiologist, which is a doctor who specializes in reading the X-rays, and magnetic and ultrasound scans involving the head, neck, and spine. Numerous media organizations including Market Watch have pointed out that even though he was appointed to the Trump administration's coronavirus response team in August, Atlas doesn't have an infectious disease background.

But he is a known proponent of the "herd immunity" strategy as a way of dealing with COVID-19, which has been widely panned by medical experts including those at the Mayo Clinic, because it is not known if getting sick with the coronavirus makes one immune. Already there have been areas which have reported reinfections. A reinfection is currently defined as two documented positive cases have been reported by the same person, three months apart (via WSOC).

Twitter even took it upon itself to block one of his tweets, because he had claimed face masks didn't work against COVID-19. As former coronavirus adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, Olivia Troye, tweeted: "You [Atlas] caused immeasurable harm during your #WhiteHouse tenure by spreading false narratives, further dividing America on this pandemic & derailing the efforts of WH #Covid TF members #Hahn, #Birx, #Redfield & #Fauci after they'd already been put through hell. BYE! @ScottWAtlas."