Donald Trump unveils new medical adviser who wants schools opened

President Donald Trump signaled a new shift in his public health posture to the coronavirus pandemic Monday at the White House when he announced the presence of Dr. Scott Atlas – who has warned of the costs of school closings. 

It was just one of multiple areas where Trump made news or veered into murky statements at a White House press briefing that was briefly interrupted after a Secret Service agent told Trump he needed to stop the briefing following what the president later said was a shooting outside the White House. 

After Trump declared himself not rattled by the sudden interruption, he briefly pointed to Atlas, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, and mentioned him to the press.  He said Atlas, who has appeared on Fox News, ‘will be working with us on the coronavirus’ and ‘he has many great ideas.’

President Trump said the ‘great pandemic’ of 1917 ‘probably ended the second World War, all the soldiers were sick’

The shout-out came after Trump has spent weeks occasionally clashing with national health expert Dr. Anthony Fauci on lockdowns and school closings.

Conservative commentator hailed the appointment on his website, writing about ‘good news’ that he was added to the vice president’s coronavirus task force.

‘Scott Atlas is a brilliant guy and he thinks by early October that we could well be burned out of COVID. In his opinion, we could see it turn inert,’ according to the story on Limbaugh’s site. 

The news comes after Trump also tweeted about coronavirus task force expert Dr. Deborah Birx, calling it ‘pathetic’ after she warned about lockdowns following criticism from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Atlas in his speakers’ bureau bio says he has advised presidential candidates, and has been identified as an advisor to former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 campaign. 

Stanford University Professor Scott Atlas listens as United States President Donald J. Trump speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 10 August 2020. Atlas has questioned 'hysteria' over school closings

Stanford University Professor Scott Atlas listens as United States President Donald J. Trump speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 10 August 2020. Atlas has questioned ‘hysteria’ over school closings

United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin (L), Director for Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought (C) and Stanford University Professor Scott Atlas (R) listen as United States President Donald J. Trump speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room Monday

United States Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin (L), Director for Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought (C) and Stanford University Professor Scott Atlas (R) listen as United States President Donald J. Trump speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room Monday

Atlas spoke to Fox News in a mid-July appearance amid national debate over keeping schools closed. 

‘We are the only country in the world, this is a level of hysteria like this is something I feel like I’m living in a Kafka novel here. I mean, I get thousands of e-mails a week from all over the world, from professors, teachers, mothers in the United States and elsewhere, they are stunned that we are willing to just simply destroy our children out of some bizarre notion that is completely contrary to the science,’ he said.

In May, Atlas disagreed with a model projecting 134,000 deaths by August 4, based on his reading of the fatality rate.

The U.S. exceeded that total, and as of August 10 was over 160,000. 

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany has frequently quoted Atlas, as she did in July from the White House podium when she said: ‘Children under 18 have virtually zero risk of death from COVID, virtually zero risk of serious illness.’

Trump himself took heat when he said children are ‘almost immune’ from the virus, even though that is not the case.  

Trump on Monday voiced support for Atlas’ views. ‘I think schools have to open,’ the president said. ‘I think it’s a very important thing for the economy to get the schools going.’

Atlas offered up-beat information in a July interview even as cases rose.

‘If cases go up, that’s okay, the key thing is to prevent a big outbreak of deaths and serious complications and the way we do that is by protecting the high risk group,” Atlas said. “Actually, we have been protecting the high risk group much better now, because we see that there’s a huge increase in cases but there’s actually a decrease in the rate of hospitalizations and a continuing decrease in the rate of deaths 

Following Trump’s statement, he covered the waterfront in a press conference where he once again referenced the 1918 flu pandemic in comparison to the coronavirus crisis. He accidentally connected it to World War II, (1939-1945). 

‘The closest thing is in 1917 they say, right? The great pandemic, certainly as a terrible thing,’ Trump said. 

Then he said it ‘probably ended the second World War, all the soldiers were sick.’ 

Trump also defended an executive order he referenced over the weekend that would provide healthcare protections for Americans with preexisting medical conditions. He was asked an order was needed, when a ban on denial of preexisting conditions is one of the centerpieces of Obamacare.

Trump regularly rails against the law and helped take down its individual mandate, but those provisions remain in force.   

Trump said his order was ‘just a double safety net and just to let people know that the Republicans are already strongly in favor of’ protections for preexisting conditions.

‘It’s a signal to people. It’s a second platform,’ Trump said, acknowledging the move was symbolic.