“But there’s a more
fundamental point that I want to make sure have time to address and that is
this idea that somehow has evolved that we must stop cases. That was never the
policy, that should never be the policy when you have an infection that 99% of
people have no problem with. It’s no big deal if low risk people get the
infection. It’s really irrational to somehow keep apart healthy younger people,
to insist that they should wear a mask, or that there should be some limit in
restaurants. If you are high risk, you are high risk. But the most recent data
shows that the infection fatality rate for people under 70 is 0.04%. That’s one-one
hundredth of the original number. And what that means is for people under 70
years old your infection fatality rate is less than or equal to seasonal flu. If
people want to shut down things because of that kind of risk then we better
shut down all the schools and restaurants during November through April [every
year] because that’s the flu season. The same risk people for this are at risk
to die from the flu. And so there’s been a complete loss of common sense here.
In Arizona specifically, yes, the cases are increasing, like they are in Texas,
and Florida. It doesn’t matter if we see the following analysis which is that the
vast majority of people are younger, healthier people. When we have more social
mingling, we will get more infections. That’s obvious. There’ a contagious
disease present. If we get more testing, we will see more infections. That’s
obvious. But the point is that this is not nearly as deadly as what
people thought. We see that the states that have more lax or more open
policies, none of them are even in the top 15 of deaths per million. It’s the
states with the lockdowns that are not the states – I mean Arizona ranks last I
looked at 21st. Florida is something like 27th. Texas is 40th in
deaths per million. Yes, there are more cases but there are not more virulent
terrible results of those cases. We don’t see more and more ICU beds being used
and I’m going to explain that in a second. We don’t see more deaths. We see
decreasing deaths. When we see what’s
happening in the ICUs and the hospitalizations there’s another factor besides
the fact that it’s younger, healthier people. We know from looking and speaking
to the doctors and the hospital administrators that they are testing every
person who comes in. And that means, let’s just say for example, a woman comes
in to deliver a baby she’s tested for COVID-19, she’s positive, they categorize
that as a hospitalization for COVID-19. I mean these are people that are asymptomatic.
They are not hospitalized for COVID-19. They are hospitalized with COVID-19. And
the same thing is going where the hospital needs to isolate people who they
think are infected even if they are in for something else, OK, and so we
isolate them, and some of them are isolated in ICU beds. So the numbers they
have to be looked at more carefully. There’s no kneejerk response of fear. OK,
there is a decreasing deaths per day. It doesn’t matter that young healthier people
get the infection. In fact there’s a positive. Because we know the way to get
immunity in the population is to have more people who are lower risk get the infection
and become immune. That’s the whole point of giving vaccines to stop the
pathways of the virus to the most risky people. That’s why we give widespread
populations vaccines, for herd immunity. And the way naturally to get herd
immunity is to have low risk people have the infection, they build up immunity,
and eventually the pathways to the high-risk people are blocked. There’s
nothing wrong with more cases. The only thing that counts is protecting the people
who are going to die. By the way, we look at the hospitalization data, yes
there are more cases, but even the people who are hospitalized, have much
shorter length of stay. Those hospitalizations are not translating into very
serious bad outcomes. So the panic here is again a manifestation of irrational people
and irrational people in charge frankly. And it’s really a sad state of affairs
to me, although it’s confusing, it’s sort of embarrassing in a sense to be
among Americans who are so compliant, so acquiescent to irrational infringement on
what their rights are.”
Dr. Scott Atlas, MD on Drive
in with The Morning Ritual with Garret Lewis, Friday, June 26, 2020. 6:18-11:21
Scott W. Atlas, M.D. is the
Robert Wesson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University
and a Member of Hoover Institution’s Working Group on Health Care Policy.
Dr. Atlas investigates the
impact of government and the private sector on access, quality, pricing, and
innovation in health care and is a frequent policy advisor to government and
industry leaders in these areas. During the 2008, 2012, and 2016 presidential
campaigns, he was a Senior Advisor for Health Care to a number of candidates
for President of the United States. He has also advised several members of the
United States Senate and House of Representatives and testified to Congress on
health care reform. His most recent book is entitled Restoring Quality Health
Care: A Six‐Point Plan for Comprehensive Reform at Lower Cost (Hoover Press,
2016). Some of Dr. Atlas's previous health policy books include In Excellent
Health: Setting the Record Straight on America’s Health Care System (Hoover
Press, 2011), Reforming America’s Health Care System (Hoover Press, 2010), and
Power to the Patient: Selected Health Care Issues and Policy Solutions (Hoover
Press, 2005). Dr. Atlas had a Fulbright award to collaborate with academic
leaders in China on structuring health care solutions for China, and also
participated with leaders from government and academia on the World Bank’s
Commission on Growth and Development. He has also advised leaders on health
care and medical technology in several countries outside the US, including
Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Dr. Atlas has published and been
interviewed in a variety of media, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes
Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Fox News, London’s Financial Times, BBC Radio, The
PBS News Hour, Bloomberg Radio, Brazil’s Correio Braziliense and Isto E,
Italy’s Corriere della Sera, Argentina’s Diario La Nacion, and India’s The
Hindu.
Dr. Atlas is also the editor
of the leading textbook in the field, the best‐selling Magnetic Resonance
Imaging of the Brain and Spine, now in its 5th edition and officially
translated from English into Mandarin, Spanish, and Portuguese. He has been
editor, associate editor, and a member of the boards of numerous scientific
journals and national and international scientific societies over the past
three decades. His medical research centered on advanced applications of new
MRI technologies in neurologic diseases. While Professor of Radiology and Chief
of Neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center from 1998 until 2012
and during his previous faculty positions, Dr. Atlas trained over 100
neuroradiology fellows, many of whom are now leaders in the field throughout
the world.
He lectures on a variety of
topics, most notably the role of government and the private sector in health
care quality and access, global trends in health care innovation, and the key
economic issues related to the future of technology‐based medical advances. In
the private sector, Dr. Atlas is a frequent advisor to start‐up entrepreneurs
and companies in the life sciences and medical technology.
Dr. Atlas has received
numerous awards and honors in recognition of his leadership in the field. He is
recognized internationally as a leader in both education and clinical research
and had been on the Nominating Committee for the Nobel Prize in Medicine and
Physiology for several years. He has been named by his peers in The Best
Doctors in America every year since its initial publication, as well as in
regional listings, such as The Best Doctors in New York, Silicon Valley's Best
Doctors, and other similar publications. He was honored to receive the 2011
Alumni Achievement Award, the highest career achievement honor for a
distinguished alumnus from the University of Illinois in Urbana‐Champaign, his
alma mater.
Dr. Atlas received a BS
degree in biology from the University of Illinois in Urbana‐Champaign and an MD
degree from the University of Chicago School of Medicine.
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