https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...pitch-announcement-out-irritation-with-fauci/ Trump reportedly made unexpected first pitch announcement out of irritation with Fauci Yankees surprised by Trump announcing plans to throw first pitch without invite: NYT President Trump reportedly caught both White House aides and the New York Yankees by surprise when he said Thursday at a White House coronavirus briefing that he was accepting an invitation by the team to throw out a ceremonial first pitch and would do so on Aug. 15.
Waiting for tarda to defend this craziness... Fauci got an invite.. Trump invents an invite to look left out and then declines the fake invitation because he is suddenly too busy...
he directed whitehouse staff to get the invite after he claimed it. So he actually used White House resources to continue the lie.
https://www.mediamatters.org/corona...ight-wing-media-talking-head-who-consistently Trump's new coronavirus “adviser” is a right-wing media talking head who is consistently wrong Here's some of Scott Atlas’ false claims, bad predictions, and praise for Trump's disastrous response that preceded his new role at the White House President Donald Trump announced this week that Dr. Scott Atlas, a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, will serve as a new “adviser” to the president on COVID-19. Atlas, whose background is in diagnostic radiology, is not an expert in infectious disease but rather a pundit and frequent Fox guest who has been repeatedly wrong about the pandemic. Atlas, who has appeared 20 times on Fox News since the end of April, predicted in March that there would only be 10,000 deaths from COVID in America, said in April that the pandemic “appears to be entering the containment phase,” and claimed in May that “the curves have been flattened.” More recently, he has taken to making unproven claims downplaying the risk of COVID-19 in considering whether to reopen schools for in-person learning. But Fox News and other right-wing outlets have elevated his politically convenient though dubious commentary; and on August 12 he gave brief remarks during a White House press briefing after Trump asked him to come up to the podium. Here is a noncomprehensive list of Atlas’ false claims, incorrect predictions, and pro-Trump sycophancy that preceded his new role at the White House. Atlas claimed in a March 16 tweet, “Virus infections typically have seasons. This is temporary.” In a March 26 op-ed in The Washington Times, Atlas wrote, “This virus could cause about 10,000 deaths in the United States overall.” In a March 26 “Hoover Virtual Policy Briefing,” Atlas claimed, “All reasonable numbers point to the fact that our number of severe outcomes will be peaking around three weeks or so.” In an April 1 op-ed in The Hill, Atlas wrote that “Americans should not panic. The United States has the most advanced medical care in the world for situations like this.” As the national curve of daily deaths continued to rise, Atlas wrote in an April 13 op-ed in The Hill that “we now need to reenter normal life” and that “continuing full-population isolation and waiting for a vaccine would be doubling down and yielding to panic.” Atlas opened his April 22 op-ed in The Hill by declaring, “The tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be entering the containment phase.” In an April 26 appearance on Fox News' The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton, Atlas told the host, “Young people under 18 have virtually no risk of serious illness or death, so it's logical to open most schools. It's logical to open most businesses.” Atlas claimed on the April 27 edition of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, “It’s actually good news that the virus spreads widely and without high risk to the vast majority of people … because that means we have a better chance of developing population immunity.” The Mayo clinic describes “major problems” with the idea that herd immunity can be achieved through natural infection as it is unknown to what extent an individual is immune to further infection after exposure. Also, according to the Mayo clinic, even if it was possible for herd immunity to be achieved this way, it “could also lead to serious complications and millions of deaths, especially among older people and those who have chronic conditions.” On the May 11 edition of Fox News' The Story with Martha MacCallum, Atlas referenced the social distancing measures and claimed that “the cure is bigger than the disease at this point.” He also told the audience that “the curves have been flattened.” On the June 8 edition of The Story with Martha MacCallum, Atlas falsely claimed “there is really no risk to young people” when it comes to COVID-19. On the June 22 edition of The Story with Martha MacCallum, host Martha MacCallum mentioned to Atlas former Food and Drug Adminstration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s claim that 25% of hospitalizations in Texas are among people aged 20 to 29. Atlas responded that he didn’t believe the number, saying, “I question if those people who are positive for COVID-19 and being hospitalized for something else are classified as COVID-19 hospitalizations. That's a big difference.” On the June 29 edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight, Atlas falsely claimed young people “do not have a significant problem, they do not have the serious complications, they do not die” from COVID-19. (The data showed at the time of this appearance and continues to show that young people do in fact die or suffer serious complications from the virus.) He also said it’s “fantastic news that we have a lot of cases,” which common sense and real-time data show to be false. On the July 6 edition of The Story with Martha MacCallum, Atlas repeated the falsehood that “it doesn’t really matter how many cases, it only matters who gets the cases” because young people die at a lower rate than older people. But increased caseloads lead to an increased strain on the capacity of health systems and may spread the virus to people who are more vulnerable to serious complications from the disease, even if the vast majority of young people who make up the increased number of cases do not. Atlas downplayed the potential risks that COVID-19 poses to people under 70 on the July 7 edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle, claiming, “The risk of this has been grossly overblown.” On the July 15 edition of America's Newsroom, Atlas falsely claimed, “It doesn’t matter if children get the disease. ... The data shows that they do not significantly transmit to adults.” On the July 25 edition of Fox News’ Watters World, Atlas uncritically shilled for the Trump’s disastrous COVID-19 response, saying, “I think the president’s briefings that were done this week were excellent, and I think it’s obvious to everyone that there’s a focus on the data, that they’re closely monitoring the situation.” He also falsely claimed that it’s been “established” that “ children are not significant spreaders,” when in fact the science on this issue remains unsettled.
Former Stanford colleagues warn Dr. Scott Atlas fosters 'falsehoods and misrepresentations of science' Over 70 Stanford Medical School doctors and researchers signed a letter. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/sta...tt-atlas-fosters-falsehoods/story?id=72926212 A group of 78 researchers and doctors from Stanford Medical School took aim this week at Dr. Scott Atlas, the expert President Donald Trump recently added to the White House pandemic response task force, for embracing and peddling what they described as "falsehoods and misrepresentations of science" in his public musings about the coronavirus. Atlas, a neuroradiologist by training with no background in treating infectious diseases, joined the president's medical advisory staff last month. Before doing so, he made frequent appearances on Fox News, where he often cast doubt on the efficacy of wearing masks and pushed for schools to reopen with in-person learning – positions in line with Trump's own public sentiments. In a "Dear Colleagues" letter penned Wednesday, the Stanford experts wrote that they have a "moral and ethical responsibility" to push back on Atlas' controversial claims about mitigating the spread of the coronavirus, which they characterized as "opinions and statements [that] run counter to established science" and "undermine public health authorities and the credible science that guides effective public health policy." ABC News has reached out to Atlas through the White House for comment. The rebuke from experts at Stanford's medical school, where Atlas was once chief of neuroradiology, marked a significant backlash against one of the president's top advisors. At a White House press briefing in August, Trump introduced Atlas as a new member of the coronavirus task force, calling him "a very famous man who is also highly respected." In their letter, however, the Stanford experts tick through a set of widely accepted medical conclusions in conflict with Atlas' public statements and alleged private policy suggestions. Without explicitly tying their list to Atlas' past statements, the set of conclusions -- which are based on a "preponderance of data," according to the letter -- include information about the use of face masks, asymptomatic spread and the risk posed to children. Their last point, for example, denounces the use of natural "herd immunity," the notion of allowing the disease to tear through the population to build up natural immunity, as "not a safe public health strategy." Last month, the Washington Post reported that Atlas advocated for the administration to embrace natural herd immunity, citing five unnamed sources. Atlas vehemently denied the report. "There is no policy of the President or this administration of achieving herd immunity. There never has been any such policy recommended to the President or to anyone else from me. That's a lie," Atlas said in a statement released by the White House. Atlas doubled down on his defense to CNN's Michael Smerconish on Sunday. "It's not just a lie, it's an overt lie, it's a disgusting lie, and it's a harmful statement to make. I have never advised the president to push a herd immunity strategy," he said. Even so, both Trump and Atlas have pushed the concept of letting the virus circulate widely -- at least among young health people -- without using the term "herd immunity." Last month, the president expressed interest in exploring the option of allowing the disease to spread quickly and allow the populace to build up resistance. "Well, once you get to a certain number, you know, we use the word 'herd,' right, once you get to a certain number, it's going to go away," Trump said on Fox News. "So -- you know -- it doesn't have to be..." Atlas has also drawn ire for controversial statements about returning children to schools. He has questioned whether children can transmit the virus and complained that the U.S. is "the only country … this hysterical about opening schools." The Stanford experts noted that, "while infection is less common in children than in adults, serious short-term and long-term consequences of Covid-19 are increasingly described in children and young people." They concluded their letter by emphasizing the need to exercise "science-based decision-making," and warning that any policy proposals that fall short of that standard could undermine progress in combating the disease. "Failure to follow the science – or deliberately misrepresenting the science," the letter continues, "will lead to immense avoidable harm." Atlas is a senior fellow at Stanford's conservative Hoover Institution.