Shrugging Atlas

The whole world is out there
Just trying to score
I've seen enough
Don't want to see anymore
--Bruce Springsteen

In an upcoming book, Stanford professor and former White House advisor Scott Atlas recounts the dismissal of scientific evidence by CDC officials during his tenure. For example, Atlas presented data indicating the inadvisability of closing schools and that children are not significant spreaders of CV19.

After the presentation, there was silence. No one citing work with contrary results. No discussion of the serious harms likely to result from school closures.

According to Atlas, Dr Deborah Birx instead told him that his opinion was 'out of the mainstream' and that he was part of a 'fringe' group wanting to re-open schools. She insisted that all experts agreed with her, despite the reality that many well known epidemiologists vehemently disagreed with the position of CDC officials.

Birx subsequently testified before Congress that Trump-appointed advisors such as Atlas did not take mitigation steps such as mask wearing that could have prevented CV19-related deaths. Of course, many of those mitigation steps still lack conclusive scientific support.

Atlas' book will serve to document and confirm what public health officials predictably do in the face of a pandemic.