MOSCOW
A Russian doctor who dismissed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic has been appointed the country’s top spokesman on the subject, state television reported Thursday. Alexander Myasnikov appeared on state channel Rossiya 24 as the head of Russia’s “Information centre for monitoring the coronavirus situation,” following reports of his appointment Wednesday. Myasnikov, who is a head doctor at a Moscow hospital, is often invited on such talk shows and was widely quoted last month with the view that the coronavirus threat was being blown out of proportion. In an interview to Orthodox channel Spas in March, Myasnikov called COVID-19 “a common cold”, and said the chances of becoming infected were extremely small. “Everything is in the hands of God,” he said, claiming that an esoteric “book of fates” used by fortune tellers predicts that “death from coronavirus would befall only several individuals out of billions.”—Agencies
