Robert Redfield, the director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was overheard blasting President Donald Trump’s health advisor Scott Atlas, NBC News reported Monday. Atlas is a new member of the White House coronavirus task force who was brought on in August.
“Everything he says is false,” Redfield said of Atlas during a phone call on a flight that was overheard by a journalist working for NBC News.
After the flight, Redfield was approached by NBC News and confirmed he was speaking about Atlas.
Atlas has come under criticism for his push to reopen schools and for criticizing the science of wearing masks to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 disease.
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“There’s no sound science that shows that you should have all populations wear a mask in all circumstances,” Atlas said on CNN earlier this month.
When asked by NBC News about Redfield’s comments, Atlas responded: “Everything I have said is directly from the data and the science. It echoes what is said by many of the top medical scientists in the world, including those at Stanford, Harvard, and Oxford.”
“These face masks are the most important and powerful public health tool we have,” Redfield said. “And I will continue to appeal to all individuals in this country to embrace these face coverings. If we did it eight, 10, 12 weeks, we’d bring this pandemic under control. We have clear scientific evidence they work and they are our best defense.”
