Twitter took down a tweet from one of President Trump's most visible coronavirus task force members, Scott Atlas, that claimed that widespread use of face masks do not help slow the spread of COVID-19.
Why it matters: Atlas — who is a radiologist, not an epidemiologist — has become of the president's favorite coronavirus advisers, despite his controversial views. Atlas has falsely claimed that "herd immunity" can be achieved with 20% to 25% of the population infected, and suggested that calls for widespread testing and tracing are "grossly misguided.”
The big picture: Atlas' tweet marks yet another example of the Trump administration sharing false or misleading information about COVID-19 as cases continue to spike across the country. Twitter told CNN the tweet was in violation of the company's misleading information policy around COVID-19 that could lead to harm.
- The company has flagged and limited the sharing of several of Trump's misleading tweets around the coronavirus.
- Atlas linked to an article from the American Enterprise Institute that questioned the effectiveness of masks.
The bottom line: Ten statesreported their highest number of coronavirus cases on Friday, and the country as a whole reported 70,000 new infections for the first time since July.
Go deeper: Check out Axios' coronavirus dashboard.
Bird E-Commerce
Robin Bird Head - Free photo on Pixabay
