Twitter Removes Tweet from Top Trump Coronavirus Adviser Saying Masks Don’t Work

Twitter marked a post from White House health adviser Dr. Scott Atlas, where he questioned the utility of mask wearing, as being in violation of the company's policies, effectively banning the tweet.

The tweet was replaced with a notice which said, "This tweet is no longer available", adding a link to Twitter's rules and policies explaining why certain posts are removed.

Atlas' tweet echoes President Donald Trump's misleading claims about masks even as the United States grapples with grim new spikes in cases. "World Health Organization:'widesprd use not supported' + many harms; Heneghan/Oxf CEBM:'despite decades, considerble uncertainty re value'; CDC rvw May:"no sig red'n in inflnz transm'n"; learn why".

Later on Saturday, the health expert re-posted his message, adding a caption that Donald Trump's coronavirus guideline was "the right policy": "use masks for their intended goal - when close to others, especially high risk".

The message pushed by the controversial neuroradiologist goes against guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends people wear masks in public settings and when around people who don't live in their household, especially when other social distancing measures are hard to maintain.

Trump has leaned on Atlas in recent months over the advice of other advisers like National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people wear face masks to help reduce the spread of coronavirus.

"Everything he says is false", Redfield said during a phone call made publicly on a commercial airline.

Atlas is far from the first member of the Trump administration to have Twitter step in over spreading misinformation about the pandemic; in the past several weeks, the website has put warning labels on a number of the president's own tweets, including his erroneous claim that he is "immune" to COVID-19.