Dr. Scott Atlas, a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force known for going against public health experts and pushing for herd immunity, submitted his resignation letter to President Trump on Monday, Fox News reports.
During his tenure, Atlas, a neuroradiologist with no infectious disease background, called lockdowns "extremely harmful" and called on schools to reopen and for colleges to let students play sports. In October, he promoted misinformation about the coronavirus on Twitter, sharing false claims about the effectiveness of masks; Twitter removed his tweet, saying it was in violation of its policy against misleading COVID-19 statements.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Nationalist wins tight Polish presidential electionspeed read Karol Nawrocki beat Rafal Trzaskowski in Poland's presidential runoff election
-
Ukraine hits Russia's bomber fleet in stealth drone attackspeed read The operation, which destroyed dozens of warplanes, is the 'biggest blow of the war against Moscow's long-range bomber fleet'
-
Starving Gazans overrun US-backed food aid hubspeed read Israeli troops fired warning shots at the Palestinians
-
Israel's Western allies pull back amid Gaza escalationspeed read Britain and the EU are reconsidering allegiance with Israel as the Gaza siege continues
-
Trump drops ceasefire demand after Putin callspeed read Following a phone call with Russia's president, Trump backed off an earlier demand that Putin agree to an immediate ceasefire with Ukraine
-
Pro-EU centrist beats Trump acolyte in Romania votespeed read The mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, defeated hard-right nationalist George Simion in the race for Romania's presidency
-
Israel-US 'rift': is Trump losing patience with Netanyahu?Today's Big Question US president called for an end to Gaza war and negotiated directly with Hamas to return American hostage, amid rumours of strained relations
-
Kurdish PKK militia to disband for Turkey talksspeed read The Kurdistan Workers' Party will disarm after four decades of armed conflict with Turkey, putting an end to 'one of the longest insurgencies in the Middle East'
