Infectious Disease Expert Slams Reported Herd Immunity Comments from Scott Atlas: ‘Most Amazing Combination of Pixie Dust and Pseudoscience’

Recently the New York Times reported on an exchange between a Nobel Prize-winning economist and Dr. Scott Atlas, a radiologist who is currently serving as one of President Donald Trump’s top coronavirus advisers, that led to Atlas touting “herd immunity” on covid:

Dr. Atlas went on to reference a theory that the virus can be arrested once a small percentage of the United States population contracts it. He said there was a “likelihood that only 25 or 20 percent of people need the infection,” an apparent reference to a threshold for so-called “herd immunity” that has been widely disputed by epidemiologists.

The call for more widespread testing and isolation, Dr. Atlas wrote, “is grossly misguided.”

On Meet the Press Sunday, Chuck Todd asked infectious disease expert Michael Osterholm about this theory of herd immunity.

“Is that even possible without a robust vaccine?” Todd asked.

Osterholm started by saying, “That 20 percent number is the most amazing combination of pixie dust and pseudoscience I have ever seen. So let’s just move on. It is 50 to 70 percent at minimum.”

He elaborated:

“Remember, when we talk about getting 50 to 70 percent protection, we’re talking you can get there with disease but if that happens, there will be a lot of deaths, a lot of serious illnesses, or we can try to get there with vaccination. And postponing the number of people get sick until we have the vaccines available. Once you get to 50 to 70 percent, that’s kind of like what you hear on the airplane and they announce we’re about to descend into LaGuardia. You still have 30 minutes of flight time. 50 to 70 percent just slows down transmission, it doesn’t stop it… Our goal is to get many people protected with vaccine and we have to tell that story.”

You can watch above, via NBC.