Scott W. Atlas, M.D.
Scott is the Robert Wesson Senior Fellow in Health Policy at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
Dr. Atlas investigates the impact of government and the private sector on access, quality, and pricing in health care, trends in health care innovation, and key economic and civil liberties issues related to health policy.
He has served as senior advisor for health policy to numerous members of the US Congress and candidates for President. From August through November, 2020, he served as a Special Advisor to the President and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
- Robert Wesson Senior Fellow | Health Policy
Hoover Institution
Stanford University - Senior Scholar & Founding Fellow
Academy for Science and Freedom
Hillsdale College USA
More about Scott
Scott W. Atlas, MD is the Robert Wesson Senior Fellow in health policy at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He investigates the impact of government and the private sector on access, quality, and pricing in health care, trends in health care innovation, and key economic and civil liberties issues related to health policies. He is a frequent policy advisor to policymakers in the United States and other countries. He has served as senior advisor for health policy to several candidates for President, members of the US Congress, and health agencies. From August through November, 2020, he served as Special Advisor to the President and a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Before his policy appointment at Hoover Institution, he was Professor and Chief of Neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center for 14 years and in academic medicine for 25 years. Dr. Atlas is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, 200 policy pieces, and numerous books, including “A Plague Upon Our House: My Fight at the Trump White House to Stop COVID from Destroying America” (Post Hill Press), “In Excellent Health: Setting the Record Straight On America’s Health Care” (Hoover Press), and “Restoring Quality Health Care: A Six-Point Plan for Comprehensive Reform at Lower Cost” (Hoover Press). He is also the editor of “Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain and Spine”, the leading textbook in the field, now in its 5th edition.
Dr. Atlas has received many awards from leading institutions and societies in recognition of his leadership in policy and medicine, including the 2022 Encounter Prize for Advancing American Ideals, explained as follows: “Standing up to injustice and facing down the madding crowd of conformity requires enormous patience, equilibrium, insight, and courage—the most important virtue, Aristotle observed, because without it none of the other virtues can flourish. The Encounter Prize for Advancing American Ideals pays tribute to individuals who effectively embody this rare combination of virtues in their lives and work;” the 2021 Freedom Leadership Award, Hillsdale College’s highest honor, “in recognition of his dedication to individual freedom and the free society,” the 2021 Conservative Partnership Institute Freedom Fighter of the Year Award, CPI’s highest honor, “bestowed upon an individual for their courage and dedication to truth and liberty” and the 2011 Alumni Achievement Award, the highest career achievement honor for a distinguished alumnus from the University of Illinois in Urbana‐Champaign. In the private sector, Atlas is a frequent advisor to start-up entrepreneurs and companies in life sciences and medical technology. He received his MD degree from the University of Chicago School of Medicine.
SELECTED BOOKS
A Plague Upon Our House
“A mind-blowing account of the famed scientist’s personal experience with the Covid era and a luridly detailed account of his time at the White House. Atlas’s book has exposed a scandal for the ages…this book is easily the most crucial first-person account we have so far. It is gripping, revealing, devastating for the lockdowners and their vaccine-mandating successors, and a true classic that will stand the test of time. It’s simply not possible to write the history of this disaster without a close examination of this erudite first-hand account.”
– Jeffrey A. Tucker for Brownstone Institute
“A must-read for anyone who wants to understand how unelected public health bureaucrats took control of the pandemic response and implemented irrational policies with disastrous consequences for the public”
– The Stanford Review
“How could public officials vowing to “follow the science” on Covid-19 persist in promoting ineffective strategies with terrible consequences? Scott W. Atlas provides an answer: because the nation’s governance was hijacked by three bureaucrats with scant interest in scientific research or debate—and no concern for the calamitous effects of their edicts.“
– John Tierney for City Journal
Restoring Quality Health Care
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) granted the federal government unprecedented regulatory authority over health insurance and the health care industry. Those changes ignore the fundamental problems with the existing system: the incentives that have caused runaway costs and excluded millions of Americans from accessing the world’s best medical care. Many former ACA supporters now push for an even more extreme takeover of the US system: overt single-payer health care, or “Medicare for All.”
“Too often, health policy sounds like the secret plan of a mystical cult—arcane, complex, and inaccessible. Scott Atlas is clear, concise, grounded in the facts and a model of elegant simplicity. And it will work!”
– Douglas Holtz-Eakin
“Atlas gives us an informed view of how to achieve high quality in health care while bringing costs under control.”
– George P. Shultz
“Scott Atlas has written a book that is a must-read for anyone with a serious interest in health policy. Valuable insights and critical information appear on page after page. Read it. You won’t be disappointed.”
– John C. Goodman
In Excellent Health
Medical care in the United States has been loudly and repeatedly derided as inferior in comparison to health care systems in much of the developed world and even in some relatively undeveloped nations. Here are the real facts on America’s health care dilemma.
In Excellent Health offers an alternative view of the much maligned state of health care in America, challenging the statistics often cited as evidence that medical care in the United States is substandard and poor in value relative to that of other countries. Rather than relying on purely subjective judgments about equity and fairness, the book provides extensive, detailed evidence with which to answer the paramount question when considering quality of health care: “Where would you rather be when you are sick?”
Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain and Spine
For more than 25 years, Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain and Spine has been the leading textbook on imaging diagnosis of brain and spine disorders. The Fifth Edition continues this tradition of excellence with thorough coverage of recent trends and changes in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of CNS diseases, and how those changes relate to MRI findings. It remains a comprehensive, state-of-the-art reference for all who have an interest in neuroradiology – trainees to experts in the field, basic science researchers, and clinicians.
“The gold standard as a reference for neuroradiology.”
– American Journal of Neuroradiology
“The “best-in the-business” at combining depth of coverage in the basics of MR physical principles with breadth of coverage for clinical neurodiagnostic case material.”
– American Journal of Neuroradiology
“The classic neuroradiology textbook … Scott W. Atlas’ Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain and Spine has always been my favorite go-to source for all things neuroradiology. With the fifth edition dedicated to the “critical thinkers” … Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain and Spine continues to be an all-inclusive contemporary review of neuroradiology.”
– Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging
PODCAST: Independent Truths
Join Scott in conversation with high-profile guests around public health policy, science, civil liberties, censorship and free speech, higher education, the media, and more.
Selected Commentary
Today’s Public Health Emergency: Restoring Trust With Seven Steps
Real Clear Politics – 30 October 2023
Sanders’ Medicare-for-All Would Destroy America’s Health Care
Real Clear Politics – 11 July 2023
Stop Ignoring Facts and Fix Health Care for Minorities and the Poor
Real Clear Politics – 12 June 2023
New priorities in U.S. health and science policy: Autonomy and accountability
Washington Times – 15 May 2023
W.H.O. Do You Trust?
Newsweek – 16 March 2023
America’s COVID Response Was Based on Lies
Newsweek – 6 March 2023
Sins Against Children: On America’s Moral Compass in the Face of Covid
New Criterion – 4 January 2023
When Will Academia Account for Its Covid Failures?
Wall Street Journal – 29 December 2022
Lockdown inutil. E la scienza lo sapeva
La Verita – 16 November 2022
The Review Interviews Dr. Scott Atlas
Stanford Review – 25 October 2022
Ethical Principles of Public Health
Academy for Science & Freedom – 23 August 2022
America Needs a Rebirth of Science
National Review – 20 December 2021
How Panic Spread in the Early Days of COVID-19
Newsweek – 18 November 2021
The Last Word
Stanford Review – 7 March 2021
Mindless Lockdowns Destroy Lives — And Our Constitution
New York Post – 8 February 2021
Science, Politics, and COVID: Will Truth Prevail?
Imprimis – February 2021 (vol. 50, no. 2)
A Pandemic of Misinformation
Wall Street Journal – 21 December 2020
Science says: Colleges should all reopen (with precautions)
New York Post – 15 September 2020
Science says: ‘Open the schools’
The Hill – 1 June 2020
Relying on Foreign Drugs is Dangerous
Wall Street Journal – 28 April 2020
The data is in — stop the panic and end the total isolation
The Hill – 22 April 2020
Single Payer’s Misleading Statistics
Wall Street Journal – 17 December 2018
The False Promise of ‘Medicare for All’
Wall Street Journal – 12 November 2018
Selected Media
Why The Covid Pandemic Policies Were Anti-Science
Fox News
11 December 2023
Scott Atlas: Restoring Trust After COVID
15 November 2023
Pod and Man at Yale: Dr. Scott Atlas on COVID Failures and How Censorship Kills
23 October 2023
From Crisis to Opportunity: COVID Lockdowns and Educational Freedom
27 September 2023
Dr. Scott Atlas: Inside Trump’s COVID Task Force
The Highwire with Del Bigtree
26 June 2023
Do Not Let Scientists Rewrite COVID History
UK Telegraph
23 June 2023
COVID, Civil Discourse and the Free Exchange of Ideas
9 June 2023
“Academia, Science, and Public Health: Will an Ethical Society Return?”
Stanford Academic Freedom conference
5 November 2022
“The SARS2 Pandemic: Will Truth Prevail?”
Hillsdale College Kirby Center, Washington D.C. Campus. The Academy for Science and Freedom
24 January 2022
The Liberty Forum
11 January 2022
The Truth About COVID
3 December 2021
Tucker Carlson Today
17 November 2021
America’s COVID-19 Debacle: “A Plague Upon Our House”
9 September 2021