Former White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Scott Atlas blasted Dr. Anthony Fauci's "unconscionable" handling of the COVID-19 pandemic during a Friday night appearance on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
Atlas, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center, brought a much-needed dose of reality to President Donald Trump's COVID-19 task force last summer before stepping down in November 2020. During that time, he went toe-to-toe with the lockdown positions espoused by Fauci and fellow member Dr. Deborah Birx, and received plenty of criticism along the way.
Some of that criticism came from Fauci himself, who, as we've seen through his interactions with Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, isn't particularly fond of being publicly disagreed with.
In the wake of Buzzfeed's massive FOIA reveal of thousands of Fauci emails, however, it was Atlas' turn to throw a few well-deserved punches:
Dr. Scott Atlas absolutely excoriates Fauci:
— Scott Morefield (@SKMorefield) June 5, 2021
"Beyond the failure of these policies, what we see in the emails is really an ethical violation of a public health official who never once contemplated or voiced concern about the impact of the policies on the public health."
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After criticizing Fauci's flip-flop on public masking despite being correct on the science at the beginning of the pandemic, Atlas pointed out how policies that focused on imposing devastating lockdowns, business closures, and restrictions were seemingly carried out without considering their "impact" on the people they negatively affected.
The truth was evident in the public statements back then and the emails confirmed that at one point Dr. Fauci was stating the evidence, which was that the masks were not able to contain this virus and that's not what the masks are for, even in a medical setting, because the virus goes through the mask. The virus goes around the mask, and, he knew it, he explained it in detail apparently in one of those emails to somebody.
Lots of things were said that were really, turns out, the advice that was given about the lockdowns was not based on data at all, even though people jumped up and down and said 'it's the science,' a term that’s permanently damaged now. The country implemented the Fauci-Birx lockdowns, and this is what failed to protect the elderly, did not stop the spread of the virus, and destroyed so many people. You know, all the medical care that was missed, particularly the working class and the poor, and beyond the failure of these policies, that really, what we see in the emails is really an ethical violation of a public health official who never once contemplated or voiced concern about the impact of the policies on the public health. I mean, this is a tremendous, really unconscionable way to conduct public health advice.
Atlas and Carlson went on to discuss the negative ramifications of not publicizing the true risk groups and fatality rates.
View the entire exchange below: