Twitter removes Trump's health adviser's 'false' tweet claiming ‘masks don’t work’

Twitter, on October 18, blocked a tweet by Scott Atlas, a contrarian medical advisor to the US President Donald Trump, in which he stated that masks fail to protect against coronavirus. “Masks work? NO,” Atlas had said in a tweet. Along with the test, Atlas had also shared an article that argued against the effectiveness of masks. The micro-blogging website removed the tweet and said that post ‘violated’ it policy on COVID-19 misinformation that prohibits sharing ‘false or misleading’ content which could lead to harm. 

Atlas is a neuroradiologist with epidemiology background. He has repeatedly argued that lockdowns are excessive and has also pushed for reopening the economy. In series of tweets on Sunday, Atlas falsely claimed that several US states and other countries had taken up widespread use of masks without evidence of any positive effect. He also incorrectly stated that there were ‘many harms’ to the practice. 

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Atlas slammed for ‘false’ statements 

Even with no training in virology or epidemiology, Atlas is yet understood to have become the key scientific influence on the president. His views on how to control the virus have raised alarm in scientific circles. The neuroradiologist has suggested that people could gain natural self-defence against the disease even without a vaccine through ‘herd immunity’. 

Atlas was brought onto the White House coronavirus task force in August and since he has become a Trump favourite. Other task force members, including Dr Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, were mainstays of Trump’s press conferences early in the pandemic, however, they have faded from view at the White House. Shortly after Atlas’ appointment, 78 of his former colleagues at Stanford medical school reportedly wrote an open letter in which they lamented that many of Atlas’ opinions ‘run counter to established science’. 

Back in September, Atlas criticised Robert Redfield, who is the director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, for saying that 90 per cent of Americans are still vulnerable to the virus. Fauci then fired back on Redfield’s behalf and said that Atlas ‘tends to cherry-pick data’. Redfield also slammed Atlas and said that ‘everything he says is false’.

(Image: @RonPaulInstitit/Twitter) 

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