US President Donald Trump (L) listens to White Home coronavirus adviser Dr. Scott Atlas communicate throughout a press convention within the Brady Briefing Room of the White Home on September 23, 2020, in Washington, DC.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Pictures
On Thursday, dozens of medical doctors and researchers from Stanford College emphasised that they will not be silenced after listening to they might face authorized motion after criticizing the White Home’s coronavirus advisor Dr. Scott Atlas.
Earlier this month, Stanford lecturers penned an open letter calling out Atlas, a former colleague, for spreading what they characterised as “falsehoods and misrepresentations of science.” Particularly, the authors expressed concern about Atlas advocating in opposition to using masks and different public well being measures.
In response, the researchers behind the “Expensive Colleague” letter mentioned they acquired a authorized risk on Sept. 16 from Marc Kasowitz of the legislation agency Kasowitz Benson Torres, which requested the letter writers to withdraw their claims or face authorized motion. Kasowitz claimed to symbolize Atlas, who at present works as a senior fellow at Stanford College’s Hoover Establishment.
Atlas, in his medical profession, has specialised in radiology and neuro-radiology and never infectious illness.
In current months, he is made a sequence of controversial statements, together with to push the White Home to permit younger folks to contract the coronavirus in hopes of attaining “herd immunity.”
A copy of Kasowitz’s letter was posted on Twitter by Michael Fischbach, a Stanford professor. As well as, a spokesperson for the Stanford college who penned the letter shared a duplicate of with CNBC.
Kasowitz’ letter describes the Stanford group’s criticisms as “abjectly false.”
“We due to this fact demand that you just instantly challenge a press launch withdrawing your letter and that you just contact each media outlet worldwide that has reported on it to request a direct correction of the file,” it reads.
Fischbach, an affiliate professor within the division of bioengineering, tweeted in response: “I stand by the whole lot we mentioned.”
Following the authorized risk, a bigger group from Stanford College has now signed one other letter stating that they won’t be intimidated or silenced.
“We imagine that his statements and the recommendation he has been giving fosters misunderstandings of established science and dangers undermining essential public well being efforts,” reads the letter, which was signed by 105 medical doctors, scientists, public well being specialists and college members.
“As well as, we’re deeply troubled by the authorized threats that Dr. Atlas has made in opposition to us in an try to intimidate and silence us within the midst of a pandemic.”
The group additionally despatched their very own letter defending their place from the agency Kaplan Hecker & Fink, which was addressed to Atlas’ authorized staff.
