TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — President Donald Trump’s new pandemic adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, says coronavirus infections and deaths are declining in the hardest-hit states.
Appearing with Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for a panel discussion on Monday, Atlas said hospitalizations, length of hospital stays and mortality are also declining.
“The American public should feel cautiously optimistic here about what’s going on," Atlas said. "There is no need for fear at this point.”
He also downplayed the risk of infections in young people and agreed with DeSantis that college football needs to be played this year. He described fit athletes as low-risk and said football “can be done safely” using social distancing in big stadiums.
“College sports is a big part of America and it’s a big part of the economic engine,” he said.
Atlas also downplayed the need to test people for the coronavirus when they don’t have symptoms.
“When you start a program of testing simply to detect positive cases among asymptomatic low-risk groups, the outcome from that is to close the schools," he said. "And the goal of testing is not to close things. The goal of testing is to protect the vulnerable while we open the schools and open the economy.”