Donald Trump’s closest adviser on the COVID-19 pandemic is a right wing ideologue who’s been pushing the bogus idea of herd immunity, also known as “just let ‘em all die.”

Yesterday he posted a comment on Twitter that sounded to many people (including yours truly) like a call for anti-lockdown violence in Michigan, where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has already been the target of a right wing kidnap/murder plot.

Today the Washington Post editorial board calls for him to be fired immediately: Scott Atlas’s Michigan lockdown comments will sicken people. Fire him.

SCOTT ATLAS is a neuroradiologist, not an infectious disease expert, nor an epidemiologist. As President Trump’s leading adviser on the coronavirus pandemic, he continues to make statements that will cause more illness and death. He ought to be fired immediately.

[…]

Dr. Atlas has frequently belittled lockdowns and pandemic restrictions, saying they have deleterious knock-on effects and are unnecessary, and that only the “vulnerable” need protection. Of the Michigan restrictions, he wrote on Twitter: “The only way this stops is if people rise up. You get what you accept. #​FreedomMatters #​StepUp.” So, while the governor was desperately trying to save lives by slowing the virus transmission, Dr. Atlas was urging people to disobey and revolt. This is incendiary talk, especially since the governor was the target of a kidnapping plot foiled by the FBI before the election. Dr. Atlas later insisted he would never encourage violence and was talking about voting and peaceful protest.

He was talking about “voting?” After the election was over? Yes, this guy definitely should be fired. And then Donald Trump should resign because he’s the real problem.