Stanford Experts' Letter Over Trump Adviser Atlas Spurs Pushback

STANFORD, CA — A coronavirus task force adviser in the Trump administration is threatening to sue dozens in the Stanford medical establishment who signed an open letter earlier this month denouncing their former colleague for expressing views they say undermine public health efforts.

An attorney representing Scott Atlas is threatening a defamation lawsuit against the letter’s signatories.

Atlas was tapped to join the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force even though the neuroradiologist has no experience in epidemiology or any relevant public health or infectious disease expertise, according to his Stanford bio page.

Dozens of Stanford medical experts signed the open letter that admonishes Atlas for "opinions and statements" that "run counter to established science."

Atlas has publicly advocated for a “herd immunity” strategy that health experts say could imperil the lives of millions of Americans, The Washington Post reports. Atlas has since claimed that he isn’t advocating for pursuing herd immunity.

“As infectious diseases physicians and researchers, microbiologists and immunologists, epidemiologists and health policy leaders, we stand united in efforts to develop and promote science-based solutions that advance human health and prevent suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. In this pursuit, we share a commitment to a basic principle derived from the Hippocratic Oath: Primum Non Nocere (First, Do No Harm),” the letter states.

“To prevent harm to the public’s health, we also have both a moral and an ethical responsibility to call attention to the falsehoods and misrepresentations of science recently fostered by Dr. Scott Atlas, a former Stanford Medical School colleague and current senior fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. Many of his opinions and statements run counter to established science and, by doing so, undermine public-health authorities and the credible science that guides effective public health policy.”

Marc Kasowitz, an attorney who represented President Donald Trump amid the Russian election interference probe, threatened the signatories of the Sept. 9 letter with legal action.

Michael Fischbach, a Stanford professor of microbiology and one who signed the open letter, posted a copy of Kasowitz’s letter on Twitter.

Kasowitz alleges that the “letter, which you wrote and sent with no regard for the truth, maliciously defames Dr. Atlas. We therefore demand that you immediately issue a press release withdrawing your letter and that you contact every media outlet worldwide that has reported on it to request an immediate correction of the record.”

Fischbach isn’t backing down.

“I stand by everything we said,” Fischbach wrote on Twitter. “More facts, more science. Less Kasowitz.”