Scott Atlas pushes herd immunity on Fox after denying he pushes herd immunity on Fox

Laura Ingraham did not comment upon the reversal

Scott Atlas, a Fox News regular who used the platform to become Trump’s dubious coronavirus adviser, appeared on The Ingraham Angle to push “herd immunity,” only a few weeks after appearing on the network to deny reports that he had counseled the president on this policy.

On the October 15, 2020, edition of The Ingraham Angle, Atlas touted the Great Barrington Declaration, an online movement backed by a libertarian think tank that calls for “herd immunity,” a policy of deliberately spreading the coronavirus as widely as possible, causing millions of unnecessary deaths in the process and straining our health care system. He also claimed the World Health Organization signed onto the declaration, despite a recent press conference by WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus rejecting the herd immunity policy, calling it “immoral” and “scientifically and ethically problematic.”

The declaration was signed by fake experts such as “Dr. Johnny Bananas,” and it calls for “those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection.” It has been widely rejected by experts, including the country’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, who called the document “total nonsense” and “ridiculous.”

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Citation From the October 15, 2020, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle

SCOTT ATLAS: We just had a declaration written and the thrust of the declaration is exactly aligned with the president, that is opening schools, opening society, and protecting the high-risk people, the seniors. And now we have over 9,000 epidemiologists from all over the world signing onto this. We have the World Health Organization signing onto this.

Atlas has previously denied he pushed the president to embrace herd immunity after multiple outlets reported that he is advising the White House on it. 

On September 1, Atlas told Fox’s Tucker Carlson it is a “falsehood” to suggest he supports herd immunity in advising the president and “there is no advising going on from me about wide open -- and pursuing herd immunity strategy. I’ve never said that to the president.”

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Citation From the September 1, 2020, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

The next day, he said on Fox News @ Night that “there’s never been an advisement by me” to “pursue some sort of strategy of herd immunity.”

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Citation From the September 2, 2020, edition of Fox News' Fox News @ Night With Shannon Bream

On October 13, The New York Times reported that two senior Trump administration officials touted the declaration pushing herd immunity during a call with reporters after White House officials met with its authors last week.

If Atlas wants to continue gambling with the lives of millions to feed his own ego through Fox News appearances and White House access, he might consider lies that are less sloppy.