“Many of his opinions and statements run counter to established science and, by doing so, undermine public-health authorities and the credible science that guides effective public health policy,” according to the letter, signed by Dr. Philip A. Pizzo, former dean of Stanford School of Medicine; Dr. Upi Singh, chief of Stanford’s Division of Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Bonnie Maldonado, professor of epidemiology and population health, and 105 others.

Among the letter’s signatories are many national experts in the university’s departments of infectious disease, epidemiology and microbiology, including Dr. David Relman, who pioneers methods for discovering new human pathogens, and Dr. Lucy S. Tompkins, who leads Stanford’s Department of Infection Prevention and Control…

As a diagnostic radiologist, he specializes in interpreting images taken by X-ray, MRIs and CT scans. He served as a professor and chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center from 1998 to 2012…

Defending his lack of expertise in infectious disease, “I’m not hired to be an epidemiologist,” Atlas told CNN. “I am someone who’s worked in health care policy for about 15 plus years, and before that, I had a 25-year career … in very high-level medical science and in integrating a lot of complicated stuff — specialty information from high-level subspecialists in infectious disease, pediatrics, oncology, cardiovascular medicine.”