Trump White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr Atlas says Fauci not alone in panel missteps

That Dr. Scott Atlas didn’t always agree with Dr. Anthony Fauci as co-members of the Trump White House Coronavirus Task Force is no secret. But now, years later, he’s come to Fauci’s defense, at least in part, for what he considers him having been made a scapegoat over decisions he did not make alone. “We need to be factually correct,” Atlas said on The John Solomon Reports podcast on Tuesday, six days after Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, testified before the Senate about the country’s response to COVID-19 and knowledge about the origins of the virus. He pleaded the Fifth Amendment, on the ground of protection from self-incrimination, in response to over 100 questions he was asked. 
“You’ll see a lot of people … trying to run from accountability. And now, all of a sudden, they’re going to blame as if they weren’t active participants. They’re going to blame Fauci.”
Among those also on the committee whom he specifically cited were former Vice President Mike Pence, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx and former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield. And he questioned whether they in fact looked at infection-fatality rates before making decisions.
​“I’m not sure that they actually saw data themselves,” Atlas said. “The data showed that the infection fatality rate was not only much lower, one maybe a 100th of what they were talking about, but it was also very different for different age groups and different people who had different risk factors.​​”
​During the podcast, Atlas recalled one task force meeting in which he says members discussed the potential risk of the virus to children. He says he showed that young people faced minimal risk from COVID-19 while warning that school closures were harming students.
Fauci and the task force in general have been widely criticized for appearing to push state leaders, including then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, into closing school for months. 
Atlas was appointed to the task force in August 2020 by President Trump. His arguments that face masks and social distancing were not effective in slowing the spread of the virus were inconsistent with the general consensus of the group. 
Atlas also recommended encouraging low-risk people to get COVID-19 in an effort to establish herd immunity, while attempting to protect more vulnerable people.
Atlas also disputed recent comments from Pence suggesting questions about the virus’ origins were regularly discussed within the task force.
“There wasn’t a single time during the August to November meetings that I was in where anyone asked about the origin or even discussed the origin of the virus,” said, amid the debate about whether the virus, first detected in Wuhan, China, jumped naturally from animal to human or leaked from a lab. 

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