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Dr. Scott Atlas: Science Killed Itself Over COVID-19; 'Science is not supposed to be about intimidating, or abusing, or censoring data ...'
The Federalist ^ | 09/01/2021 | Helen Raleigh

Posted on 09/01/2021 8:39:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the American people have been told to “follow the science.” Yet for a year and a half, they’ve heard contradicting messages from self-appointed prophets of “the science” like Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

We learned that politicians who claimed their decisions were science-driven often ignored scientific findings that didn’t fit certain political narratives. We discovered that scientists are fallible human beings, and some would let personal interests and political views cloud their judgment.

Is science itself one of the victims of the COVID-19 pandemic? I asked Dr. Scott Atlas at the 13th annual Freedom Conference hosted by the Steamboat Institute, a Colorado-based nonprofit organization. Formerly a professor and chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center, Atlas is now a senior fellow in health policy at the Hoover Institution.

Atlas has been under constant attacks by the left and the corporate media since he served as a special adviser to former President Trump and a member of the White House coronavirus task force from August to November 2020. The New York Times and the Washington Post ran hit pieces on Atlas, questioning his qualifications despite his distinguished career and scholarship.

Google-owned YouTube also removed a 50-minute video of Atlas’s interview with the Hoover Institute. Twitter took down his tweet that questioned the effectiveness of masks.

‘Science’ Destroyed Its Own Credibility

Atlas has refused to be silenced. He has a lot to say about how the scientific field and Americans’ trust in it have been tremendously harmed during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Science has been not just a victim,” he told me, “but actively participated in the self-destruction of its credibility.”

To prove his point, Atlas referred to the now infamous letter published in Lancet, which denounced the lab-leak theory as a “conspiracy” that created “fear, rumors, and prejudice.” Facebook “fact-checkers” used the letter to censor discussion of the lab-leak theory for more than a year.

It then surfaced in The Daily Mail that Peter Daszak, president of Eco Health Alliance, orchestrated a group of scientists to write the letter without disclosing the EHA’s close financial ties to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV). Now many scientists accept that the WIV lab-leak theory is just as probable as the natural origin theory.

Atlas also faulted leading scientific publications such as Nature and Lancet for playing “important roles in enabling, encouraging, and enforcing the false narrative.” In June, journalist Ian Birrell cited one source who estimated the publisher of Nature had sponsorship agreements worth millions of dollars from Chinese institutions.

“Science is not supposed to be about intimidating, countering interpretation of data, or abusing, or censoring data,” Atlas said. “Science is not supposed to have a view. Science is only about data and the scientific process. There is never supposed to be ‘an accepted view’ of science.”

Stop Censoring the Scientific Process

Politicians and pundits also lost people’s trust by advocating regulations that were not based in fact. “The phrase ‘follow the science’ should never be uttered again by people who do not know actual data. They must stop,” Atlas said. “They have no credibility whatsoever when they get up and say, ‘follow the science.’ It’s clear many of them don’t know the science, don’t understand the science, and they are not using the science to make the recommendations.”

How can science and scientists recover from this trust deficit? “It depends on only one thing — the visibility of the scientific process, which by definition is about the visibility of the data,” Atlas said. “There should be no censorship of views and interpretation of different data. Do not intimidate or issue harsh condemnations of people just because you disagree with them. Let the truth prevail by the data.”

He has received hundreds of emails from other scientists who have encouraged him to remain outspoken while afraid to speak up themselves. “The saving of science really depend[s] on scientists to come forward and to be unafraid to say that the objectivity of science and [the] scientific process itself has been contaminated and impeded,” he continued. “When more scientists come forward, there hopefully will be a reversal of that [trust deficit]. There is no such thing as science without the evidence being visible and debates being current. Science doesn’t exist in any other way.”

How can we do a better job of fighting back the next time our ruling class tries to send us into crisis mode? We have to recognize what the data revealed about this current pandemic, Atlas said, citing several recent studies (including one by Eran Bendavid and other scientists of Stanford University) showing that lockdowns didn’t work to keep COVID-19 from spreading while imposing their own severe additional costs.

Never Let Lockdowns Destroy Lives Again

Lockdowns destroyed people, Atlas said, by “shutting down medical care, stopping people from seeking emergency medical care, increasing drug abuse, increasing death by suicide, more psychological damage, particularly among the younger generation. Hundreds and thousands of child abuse cases went unreported. Teenagers’ self-harm cases have tripled.”

Atlas also noted the increase of other deaths like tuberculosis, caused by the world’s focus on COVID-19. The World Health Organization warned in 2020 of up to an additional 400,000 deaths from tuberculosis because of the diversion of resources to COVID-19. “Mortality data showing that anywhere from a third or half of the deaths during the pandemic were not due to COVID-19,” Atlas said. “They were extra deaths due to the lockdowns.”

Besides causing health issues, the lockdowns have enormous economic costs, especially for poor people and developing countries. The Bangladesh economy’s shutdown during the pandemic, Atlas noted, was forecast to wipe out about $3 billion and close to 900,000 jobs off the nation’s economy with a devastating effect on the nation’s poor.

“We can never use the lockdown strategy again,” Atlas emphasized. Instead, we should offer targeted protections for high-risk people but no lockdowns of low-risk people. Other scientists, such as the authors of The Great Barrington Declaration, have advocated for the same approach.

Atlas offers additional advice on how to prepare for the next pandemic based on lessons learned from COVID-19 in his upcoming new book, “A Plague Upon Our House: My Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from Destroying America,” which is available for preorder now.

Ultimately, Atlas said, the most important lesson to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic is that individuals must take responsibility for their own health-related decisions. We should never surrender our autonomy and capability to assess our risk tolerance to bureaucrats or the so-called expert class.



TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: censorship; covid; science
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1 posted on 09/01/2021 8:39:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

“Science” has a long history of censorship and abuse all over the world.

Scientists have been happy to accept government funding for human experimentation from concentration camps to drug experimentation on human subjects.

This is nothing new.


2 posted on 09/01/2021 8:41:30 AM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Science” has a long history of censorship and abuse all over the world.

Scientists have been happy to accept government funding for human experimentation from concentration camps to drug experimentation on human subjects.

This is nothing new.


3 posted on 09/01/2021 8:41:30 AM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Science is not supposed to be about intimidating, countering interpretation of data, or abusing, or censoring data,”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That’s what “climate science” is all about.


4 posted on 09/01/2021 8:42:45 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizens Are Born Here of Citizen Parents)(Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: SeekAndFind
What's going on?...


5 posted on 09/01/2021 8:42:53 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: cgbg

Great post.


6 posted on 09/01/2021 8:44:26 AM PDT by KC_Lion
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To: SeekAndFind

Trump had good people


7 posted on 09/01/2021 8:46:46 AM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: SeekAndFind

For many years, science has used the example of Galileo to demonstrate scientific integrity. The Establishment at the time (the Church) didn’t like Galileo’s teaching that the Earth moved around the Sun, and they unfairly forced him to recant in public. Galileo had no choice, but after he recanted, he murmured “But it moves”. Courage! Truth! Integrity!

Of course, today, anyone who fails to “follow” the science on COVID or Global Warming is forced to recant and may well be “cancelled” by scientists and other political activists who champion the Left ideology over Truth.

“Science” is the new “Church”.


8 posted on 09/01/2021 8:48:04 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (China is like the Third Reich. We are Mussolini's Italy. Weaker, a Jr partner good at losing wars.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Science killed itself dead over Global Warming. No debate is permitted on that topic, and no dissent is tolerated. This Covid mess is just another round of that.

Unfortunately, we will see more of this going forward. Accept the party line on a scientific topic, or be punished. No more free inquiry. It’s the new normal.


9 posted on 09/01/2021 8:49:00 AM PDT by Leaning Right (I have alrseady previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.)
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To: SeekAndFind

It’s the Democrats they’re a dangerous terrorist group and should be Banned


10 posted on 09/01/2021 8:50:13 AM PDT by butlerweave
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To: SeekAndFind

It was China/NWO induced “political science” that has killed the China virus science


11 posted on 09/01/2021 8:51:08 AM PDT by drypowder
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Definition irrelevant...

Science is political. Always was, and forever will be.


12 posted on 09/01/2021 8:52:37 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Akshually - science killed itself over climate change.


13 posted on 09/01/2021 8:53:42 AM PDT by Skywise
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To: SeekAndFind

Science is a process.


14 posted on 09/01/2021 8:59:14 AM PDT by MissEdie (Be the Light in Someone's Darkness.)
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To: MissEdie

Science is a cheap back-alley whore on a Saturday night.


15 posted on 09/01/2021 9:03:47 AM PDT by cgbg (A kleptocracy--if they can keep it. Think of it as the Cantillon Effect in action.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Super article. Too bad it came late at such a high price.


16 posted on 09/01/2021 9:13:45 AM PDT by romanesq (TRUSTY THE PLAN! ChiCom Joe is the Plan? Que magnificent! 👹)
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To: SeekAndFind

The new Dark Age of Enlightenment, where knowledge is locked away in a vault and the Gatekeepers neither go in themselves nor allow others to enter, either, where the PTBs control and decide what truths are allowed to be known and where all heretics against Science and Truth will be dealt with harshly.


17 posted on 09/01/2021 9:19:09 AM PDT by GBA (Endeavor to persevere)
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To: SeekAndFind

I trust astrology more now, it’s not politicized, and it’s older.


18 posted on 09/01/2021 9:20:10 AM PDT by matthew fuller (Supporter of America's last lawfully elected President Donald J. Trump.)
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To: GBA
Science is only about data and the scientific process.

Today, we have not only fake news but fake science. If the hypothesis is not subject to the scruples of the Scientific Method it is not science. Scientific Method has nothing to do with consensus.

19 posted on 09/01/2021 9:27:08 AM PDT by immadashell (New Planned Parenthood slogan: Black Babies’ Lives Don't Matter!c)
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To: SeekAndFind
Follow The Séance!
20 posted on 09/01/2021 9:28:40 AM PDT by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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