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However that didn’t cease Dr. Atlas. In mid-November, he referred to as on folks in Michigan to “stand up” towards coronavirus restrictions. The state’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, who had confronted dying threats and a thwarted kidnapping try over the restrictions, denounced him as “extremely reckless.”
However in his resignation letter and the accompanying tweet, Dr. Atlas defended himself.
“We additionally recognized and illuminated early on the harms of extended lockdowns, together with that they create large bodily well being losses and psychological misery, destroy households and harm our youngsters,” he wrote.
“And increasingly more,” he added, “the comparatively low threat to kids of great harms from the an infection, the much less frequent unfold from kids, the presence of immunologic safety past that proven by antibody testing, and the extreme harms from closing faculties and society are all being acknowledged.”
Contained in the administration, Dr. Atlas clashed particularly with Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the federal government’s prime infectious illness specialist, and Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the coronavirus response coordinator.
Whereas Dr. Atlas was enjoying down the need of sporting masks, Dr. Birx was touring the nation preaching the other. She implored governors and public well being officers in hard-hit states to take extra aggressive steps. The 2 additionally clashed repeatedly in non-public.
However Dr. Atlas’s disagreements with Dr. Fauci had been extra visceral — and extra public.
After the election, Dr. Atlas accused Dr. Fauci of being a “political animal” who modified his evaluation of the specter of the pandemic after it turned clear that Mr. Trump had misplaced. Dr. Fauci replied in form.
“I don’t wish to say something towards Dr. Atlas as an individual, however I completely disagree with the stand he takes,” he mentioned just lately on the “In the present day” present on NBC, after Dr. Atlas’s feedback about Michigan. “I simply do, interval.”
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