Stanford University distances itself from controversial Trump advisor Scott Atlas

On Monday, in a statement on Twitter, Stanford University distanced themselves from Dr. Scott Atlas, a radiologist who has become outgoing President Donald Trump's favorite adviser on the coronavirus pandemic despite no background in infectious disease.

A recent report has suggested that the Hoover Institution itself, a conservative think tank affiliated with Stanford, has fallen into disfavor with other officials at the university.

"In September, dozens of researchers and doctors from Stanford School of Medicine signed an open letter calling attention to the 'falsehoods and misrepresentations of science' they say Atlas has espoused," reported Tom Bartlett for the Chronicle of Higher Education. "Another letter of protest, signed by more than 100 Stanford faculty members, notes that Atlas has “no expertise in epidemiology.” It also chides another Hoover fellow, Richard A. Epstein, a legal scholar and author of books like Free Markets Under Siege: Cartels, Politics, and Social Welfare, for writing in mid-March that he thought only 500 people in the United States would die from the coronavirus."