The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
September 18, 2020

Trump Coronavirus Adviser Threatens to Sue Stanford Doctors over Criticism
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

President Trump's personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz has threatened to sue
scores of Stanford professors and researchers after they published an
open letter denouncing the qualifications of Scott Atlas, a colleague at
Stanford who is now advising Trump on the pandemic. Atlas is a
neuroradiologist with no expertise in infectious diseases. The
Washington Post recently reported Atlas is pushing Trump to promote a
controversial herd immunity strategy which could result in the deaths of
millions of more Americans.

In an open letter, the Stanford doctors wrote of Dr. Atlas, "The
guidance he is giving to the White House does not reflect sound
epidemiological reasoning, nor is it consistent with the current body of
scientific knowledge about COVID-19."

Attorney Marc Kasowitz, who is now representing Atlas, has threatened to
sue signatories of the open letter and has demanded a retraction, saying
the letter "maliciously defames" his client.

Stanford professor Michael Fischbach responded to the threat by writing
on Twitter, "I stand by everything we said. More facts, more science.
Less Kasowitz." Full disclosure: Amy Goodman's brother Steven Goodman is
a dean at the Stanford School of Medicine and one of the writers of the
letter.


.