Anti-science rhetoric is organized movement that's killing people, prominent physician says
‘In addition to all the social disruption from the pandemic, there has been now a permanent tear in the public trust and our ability to vaccinate kids because of a rise in anti-vaccine activism,’ Dr. Peter Hotez told an audience at Arizona State University Nov. 16.
Arizona Republic/USA Today Network
An aggressive anti-science movement killed thousands of Americans during COVID-19 and is now a global health threat, a prominent scientist, author and pediatrician says.
Dr. Peter Hotez's outspoken advocacy for the COVID-19 vaccine goes directly against vaccine disinformation espoused by public figures such as independent U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and podcaster Joe Rogan. That has made Hotez a direct target for the anti-vaccine movement.
Hotez, author of the recent book, "The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science: A Scientist's Warning," needs a security detail whenever he appears in public because of continued threats against himself and his family. He has been stalked, he said. As he spoke at Arizona State University's downtown Phoenix campus on Thursday evening, security officers kept watch.
When Hotez speaks about the problem with science disinformation it is not with anger. In his book, he mourns what he characterizes as the preventable deaths of about 200,000 unvaccinated Americans who died of COVID-19 after May 2021, when the vaccine was widely available at no cost. Hotez sees those people who lost their lives as victims, not enemies, and expresses urgency and alarm at what he says has become a global problem.
Hotez's history with researching and developing vaccines goes back to before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2018, he wrote a book about his daughter titled "Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism: My Journey As a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician and Autism Dad" that goes into detail about how and why vaccines don't cause autism. MORE