Dr. Scott Atlas told “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Monday that there is “no science” behind the notion that children should not attend schools in the fall because of coronavirus.
Atlas, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center was reacting to the recent surge in coronavirus cases among young people as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendation that students return physically to the classrooms.
“We expected more cases with more social mingling and of course, as you are showing and others have seen, we had a lot of social mingling in the last few weeks,” Atlas told Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
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“And with that social mingling, we are going to see more cases,” he continued. “With more testing, we are going to detect more cases but the fact is the overwhelming majority of these cases are younger, healthier people. These people do not have a significant problem. They do not have the serious complications. They do not die. And so it’s fantastic news that we have a lot of cases but we don’t see deaths going up.”
Atlas argued that the country is both “doing a better job protecting the vulnerable” and also “in good shape here.”
“We like the fact that there’s a lot of cases in low-risk populations because that’s exactly how we are going to get herd immunity, population immunity, when low-risk people with no significant problem handling this virus which is basically 99% of people, get this and they become immune and they block the pathways of connectivity to more contagious, older, sicker people,” he said.
Responding to a question from Carlson about those calling for another round of lockdowns which would lead to school closures, Atlas said, “it’s hard to understand people who think irrationally.”
“There’s no reason for a lockdown when we have something happening we actually have no problem with,” he said. “These do not translate into people going into respirators. The hospitalization phase is half the length that they were before. We are doing very well with this, but the point about the schools is really critical because this is the most irrational public policy probably in modern history.”
The Stanford researcher argued that since children pose little risk of dying, experiencing complications, or even transmitting the disease, “there is tremendous harm in not having in-person schools.”
“As the American association of pediatrics pointed out, as the Hospital for Sick Kids in Toronto, one of the world’s best hospitals, pointed out when they recommended full opening, no masks, no distancing,” Atlas said. “There is no science behind having children not attend schools. There is zero science for having children wear masks or have spacing when they have zero risk from the disease.” (RELATED: Stanford’s Dr. Scott Atlas Offers Explanation For Rise In Younger Person COVID Hospitalizations In Texas)
Atlas did say that teachers who are at risk could practice social distancing, wear a mask, or even use technology to teach from home.
“You don’t lock down the children because you are personally afraid,” he concluded. “That’s totally outrageous.”