Dr. Atlas on coronavirus lockdowns: 'The policy ... is killing people'

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Dr. Atlas on debate over reopening the country

Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Dr. Scott Atlas, joins Jon Scott to discuss reopening the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Coronavirus lockdowns may be "killing" just as many people as the virus because many people with serious conditions unrelated to the virus have been skipping treatment, Hoover Institution senior fellow Dr. Scott Atlas said Saturday on "Fox Report."

"I think one thing that's not somehow receiving attention is the CDC just came out with their fatality rates," Atlas said. "And lo and behold, they verify what people have been saying for over a month now, including my Stanford epidemiology colleagues and everyone else in the world who's done this analysis -- and that is that the infection fatality rate is less than one-tenth of the original estimate."

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Even White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci is acknowledging the harm caused by the lockdown, Atlas said.

"The policy itself is killing people. I mean, I think everyone's heard about 650,000 people on cancer, chemo, half of whom didn't come in. Two thirds of cancer screenings didn't come in. 40 percent of stroke patients urgently needing care didn't come in," Atlas said. "And now we have over half the people, children in the United States not getting vaccinations. This is really what [Fauci] said was irreparable harm."

"And I and my colleagues from other institutions have calculated the cost of the lockdown in terms of lives lost," Atlas said. "Every month is about equal to the entire cost of lives lost during the COVID infection itself. This is a tragic, misguided public policy to extend this lockdown, whether or not it was justifiable in the beginning."

Many states are currently reopening their economies slowly, while a few have pledged to extend the lockdowns through the summer.

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The doctor also argued against keeping children out of schools, saying there's no reason they can't go back.

"There's no science whatsoever to keep K-through-12 schools closed, nor to have masks or social distancing on children, nor to keep summer programs closed," Atlas said. "What we know now is that the risk of death and the risk of even a serious illness is nearly zero in people under 18."