The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is heard in a phone conversation on a commercial flight saying that a key member of Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force is spreading misinformation about the pandemic.

Dr. Robert Redfield has heard of it before An employee of NBC News On a flight from Atlanta to Washington. According to NBC, Redfield criticized Scott Atlas, a radiologist and talking head of Fox News who added to the task force last month.

Redfield said of Atlas: “Everything he says is false”, NBC reported. Redfield later confirmed that he was talking about Atlas.

Confirmed deaths from Covid-19 in the United States Exceeded 200,000 The number of cases has exceeded 7 million.

Atlas, who has no background in infectious diseases but appears to have the best current access to Trump than any medical advisor, has been repeatedly criticized by the scientific and medical communities for providing what public health professionals say is bad advice about the coronavirus.

Atlas misleadingly called into question the effectiveness of masks and social distancing, and echoed Trump’s call to reopen schools, and perhaps the most controversial was the support for the intended contraction of the virus by young people to create so-called “herd immunity.”

Public health experts warn that the feasibility of “herd immunity” against the Coronavirus without a vaccine is unknown, given the uncertainty about levels and duration of immunity in individual cases. They also say achieving “herd immunity” will involve millions of infections, thousands of unknown cases of serious illness and death.

Atlas is a former professor of medicine at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the conservative Hoover Institute at Stanford University.

He drew his controversial comments Open letter Of 78 former classmates at Stanford University School of Medicine, who warned his advice was dangerous.

“Many of his opinions and statements contradict established science, and in so doing undermine the authorities of public health and credible science that guide effective public health policy,” the letter said.

Requested response to comments by Redfield, Atlas Tell NBC News: “All I have said is straight from data and science.”

In the judgment of Redfield and other specialists, this is not true. The CDC said NBC News only heard “one side” of the Redfield conversation, but did not dispute the report.

The CDC said, “NBC News is reporting one aspect of a private phone conversation … it heard it on a plane from Hartsfield Atlanta airport.” “Dr. Redfield has been having a private discussion on a number of points he has made publicly about Covid-19.”