# Atlas Shrugged **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [December 1, 2020, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876 "2020-12-01T01:15:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/1 "2020-12-01T01:15:44Z")
Dr. Atlas is leaving the Trump administration. [Dr. Scott Atlas resigns from Trump administration - CNNPolitics](https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/30/politics/scott-atlas-resigns-trump-administration-coronavirus-task-force/index.html?fbclid=IwAR3YRQRNt0YGvjoacKtwsPE-42UR-xndv9669Q7mhGDFyzsBhlCstVuxFYk) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/2 "2020-12-01T01:40:22Z")
Atlas…bugged. Bugged-out. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/3 "2020-12-01T02:07:14Z")
That must be a weight off his shoulders. It sure is ours. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/4 "2020-12-01T05:34:37Z")
Stanford University, from whence he came, kinda sorta doesn’t want him back. Boo hoo. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/5 "2020-12-01T17:24:42Z")
As mentioned in another thread, he was apparently hired under some program for temporary workers that has a 4-month lifespan. His ran out. But yeah, for a guy who knew he had just 4 months to make a name for himself up near the head table he sure “succeeded”. Shame the name turns out to be “mud”. ---
**Author:** ![SayTwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@SayTwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SayTwo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/6 "2020-12-01T17:32:37Z")
Mud to you, maybe, but to many he’s been near heroic with his courage to stand and face a monolithic opposition. I’m reminded of that old Lightning Seeds lyric: ‘The voice of reason / Is rhyming with treason today’. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/7 "2020-12-01T17:38:25Z")
He was totally unqualified for the position, and his advice was generally crap. There is no real courage in defending what is wrong against all evidence to the contrary. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/8 "2020-12-01T17:39:40Z")
> [@SayTwo](#): > > Mud to you, maybe, but to many he’s been near heroic with his courage to stand and face a monolithic opposition. To many? What about you-do _you_ consider him to be “near heroic”? ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/9 "2020-12-01T17:40:41Z")
He’s been opposed because he has been _dead wrong_ and his advice has been lethal for a lot of people. There’s no courage involved. He’s an idiot, he’s ignorant of the fields of public health and epidemiology, and he’s arrogant enough to think that his knowledge of one field of medicine qualified him to opine in another, unrelated field. Isaac Asimov and Richard Feynman are both spinning in their graves. ---
**Author:** ![SayTwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@SayTwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SayTwo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/10 "2020-12-01T17:43:00Z")
Yes. I’ve been very impressed by him in that regard. As I was by Dr Jay Bhattacharya, in an interview several months ago, when he was asked if he feared serious repercussions for standing up for his scientific views and he looked the guy dead square in the eye and said, cold as can be, ‘I don’t care if I lose my job’. That’s courage. Censorship? Far from it. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/11 "2020-12-01T17:47:41Z")
Jay Bhattacharya’s misunderstanding of both herd immunity and human nature is well known to all-thank ghod his destructive ideas weren’t put into action. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/12 "2020-12-01T18:11:27Z")
**SayTwo** , you must be a huge fan of [Andrew Wakefield](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield), then. Pushed crap medical theories that led to lots of disease and deaths, but at least he was never shy about it. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/13 "2020-12-01T18:24:01Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Jay Bhattacharya’s misunderstanding of both herd immunity and human nature is well known to all-thank ghod his destructive ideas weren’t put into action. And [like climate change deniers from the past](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/sep/08/blog-posting/no-30000-scientists-have-not-said-climate-change-h/), I noted that him and others did reach for the discredited maneuver of getting thousands of signatories to make then seem more impressive when just like in past efforts to confuse people about climate change, it was found that many of the signatories to the petition were/are fake. [https://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Stanford-prof-s-anti-lockdown-movement-faces-15644375.php](https://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Stanford-prof-s-anti-lockdown-movement-faces-15644375.php) > A number of scientists pointed out the declaration ignores increasing evidence of younger people suffering longer-term health consequences from moderate or even mild COVID-19 infections. > > Dr. Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health, University of Southampton, called the Bhattacharya-Kulldorff-Gupta plan “a bad idea.” > > “There are countries who are managing the pandemic relatively well, including South Korea and New Zealand, and their strategies do not include simply letting the virus run wild whilst hoping that the asthmatic community and the elderly can find somewhere to hide for 12 months,” he wrote. > > Sir Simon Stevens, CEO of England’s government-funded National Health Service, has said asking all over-65s to isolate themselves to slow the transmission of the second wave of coronavirus would be “age-based apartheid.” > > As of Tuesday, more than 30,000 academics, medical practitioners and public health scientists from the U.S., U.K. and other nations had allegedly signed the declaration, according to its website, marking the largest split from the prevailing scientific support for lockdowns as an anti-coronavirus strategy. > > **Sky News, however, found that the declaration contained numerous fake names including “Dr Johnny Bananas,” “Professor Cominic Dummings,” a person residing at the “university of your mum” and a professed specialist whose name was the first verse of the “Macarena,”** according to the [Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/09/herd-immunity-letter-signed-fake-experts-dr-johnny-bananas-covid). There were also more than 100 therapists and homeopaths, who listed themselves as experts in fields ranging from massage to hypnotherapy. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/14 "2020-12-01T18:25:10Z")
According to the article I read, his resignation letter stated “I worked hard with a singular focus - to save lives and help Americans through this pandemic. I always relied on the latest science and evidence, without any political consideration or influence.” It didn’t say anything about whether he added “Also, today is Opposite Day.” ---
**Author:** ![SayTwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@SayTwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SayTwo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/15 "2020-12-01T18:27:38Z")
I had not heard of him, no, and apart from clicking your link to see what it was about, I have no particular inclination to learn more about him or anyone like him. If there’s one thing this past year has taught me, it’s that there is absolutely no shortage of anti-science and incompetence in the field of public health. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/16 "2020-12-01T18:36:26Z")
> [@SayTwo](#): > > If there’s one thing this past year has taught me, it’s that there is absolutely no shortage of anti-science and incompetence in the field of public health. Nor is there a shortage of people that will support such numbskullery because of their political persuasion. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/17 "2020-12-01T18:37:35Z")
> [@SayTwo](#): > > I had not heard of him, no, and apart from clicking your link to see what it was about, I have no particular inclination to learn more about him or anyone like him. If there’s one thing this past year has taught me, it’s that there is absolutely no shortage of anti-science and incompetence in the field of public health. Not hard then to see that the ones the President consulted like Atlas and Dr Jay Bhattacharya were not the sharpest knifes in the drawer. Trump had/has the same Mierdas touch when selecting all his team members like he selected his economists. > **[Donald Trump's Trade Adviser, Peter Navarro, Is Alarmingly Ignorant About Trade](https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/10/13/donald-trumps-trade-adviser-peter-navarro-is-alarmingly-ignorant-about-trade/?sh=19809c97bd19)** > > It's not in fact possible to find another qualified economist who agrees with these views on trade. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/18 "2020-12-01T18:48:24Z")
This is the opportune time for Drs. Atlas and Bhattacharya to open a thriving Phrenology, LLP, practice. ---
**Author:** ![SayTwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e56c9b/32.png) [@SayTwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SayTwo)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/19 "2020-12-01T18:55:41Z")
Amen, brother. Amen. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2020, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876/20 "2020-12-01T19:05:25Z")
I’m curious, what criteria do you use to distinguish between the two? I mean, how did you come to the conclusion that Dr. Bhattacharya was a medical pioneer ahead of his time while someone like Dr. Fauci an utter quack? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atlas-shrugged/926876.md?page=2)