Dr. Scott Atlas, Donald Trump’s failed pandemic adviser who resigned on Monday, went on Fox News and blamed social media and universities for the administration’s disastrous response to the COVID crisis.
“We have social media where people go sort of ballistic and feel empowered to do so,” Atlas said in an interview with Tucker Carlson. “America and its universities really need to allow … the free exchange of ideas, because it is from the free exchange of ideas that scientific truths follow.”
“These scientific truths are critical for us to solve this crisis, every other crisis,” he added.
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Trump’s failed COVID adviser Scott Atlas whined about social media and universities after resigning on Monday. pic.twitter.com/hbutRMajuV
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) December 1, 2020
Atlas said:
We are living in extremely polarizing time. You know this as much as anybody. It’s an election year. We have social media where people go sort of ballistic and feel empowered to do so. I don’t know, I think that there is a serious problem, honestly, in the country, because there is a bigger issue here and that is that America and its universities really need to allow – without attack, without rebuke, without intimidation – the free exchange of ideas. Because it is from the free exchange of ideas that scientific truths follow. And these scientific truths are critical for us to solve this crisis, every other crisis. And in fact, the free exchange of ideas is the foundation of every civilized society.
The Trump administration has been the biggest source of COVID misinformation
As Dr. Scott Atlas whined about his version of “scientific truth” being censored by social media and universities, he forgot to mention that Donald Trump is the biggest source of COVID misinformation on the planet.
According to a study conducted by researchers at Cornell University, Trump has been “the single largest driver of misinformation around Covid.”
Ultimately, the problem during this public health crisis hasn’t been that the truth has been hidden from the public by social media and colleges, as Dr. Atlas claimed on Monday.
It’s that people like Donald Trump and Scott Atlas have been pushing dangerous misinformation that further endangers the lives of the American people.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
