In his apologies, Atlas claimed he was unaware that RT was a registered foreign agent.
Twitter on Thursday called a video from Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT as election misinformation. YouTube videos posted by RT carry the warning: “RT is funded in whole or in part by the Russian government”.
Earlier this year, an internal intelligence bulletin released by the Department of Homeland Security said Russia was amplifying misinformation about postal voting as part of a broader effort “to undermine public confidence in the process. electoral”.
In its application for registration as a foreign agent, RT’s US production company said its role is “to inform, not to influence” and “is not intended to primarily benefit a government. or to a foreign political party “.
A senior White House official told CNN on Sunday that Atlas had not obtained permission from the Trump administration for his interview with RT. The official said Atlas “did it on his own without White House approval.” Senior contributors raised concerns internally after Atlas appeared on RT, the source said. RT said the interview was conducted from the White House property.
Questionable claims
In Saturday’s 27-minute interview, Atlas made a series of questionable claims. For example, Atlas has distorted the effectiveness of masks, suggested that lockdowns kill people, and discouraged testing on asymptomatic people. He also rejected a forecast from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington School of Medicine that predicts 399,000 deaths from coronavirus in the United States by February 1 under current conditions.
“The IHME model is really a trifle – it makes no sense to start looking at this model at this point,” Atlas said. “At the moment, anyone who even focuses on models has not learned from the past.”
In July, the IHME model predicted that 208,255 Americans would have died from the coronavirus by November 1. In fact, according to Johns Hopkins University, 230,566 people died on November 1.
Atlas is a radiologist and has no expertise in infectious diseases or epidemiology.
The history of the Atlas controversy
In October, Twitter deleted a tweet from Atlas that sought to undermine the importance of wearing a face mask because Atlas tweet violated his Covid-19 misleading information policy, a spokesperson for the company to CNN. The tweet read: “Do the masks work? NO ”, followed by a series of lies about the science behind the effectiveness of masks in the fight against the pandemic.
He also encouraged officials to limit testing for Covid-19 primarily to people with symptoms. And on August 31, Atlas and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged public health officials in several Florida cities to focus less on universal testing and more on opening up the economy and schools.
Trump has relied on Atlas for advice on handling the coronavirus. But Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, criticized Atlas, a neuroradiologist and Trump’s coronavirus adviser, for his lack of expertise.
“I have real issues with this guy,” Fauci said in an interview with the Washington Post on Friday. “He’s a smart guy who talks about things that I think he has no real insight, knowledge or experience in. He keeps talking about things that, when you dissect and analyze them, make no sense. “
Atlas responded to Fauci on Twitter,
Tweeter Saturday night: #Insecurity #EmbarrassingHimself #Exposed #CantThrowABall #NoTimeForPolitics.
– CNN’s Jim Acosta contributed to this report.
