Peter Hotez finds ‘parallel career’ fighting vaccine misinformation

Peter Hotez has wanted to be a vaccine researcher for as long as he can remember.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented a once-in-a-lifetime challenge for someone of his skill set, but he never saw himself becoming the target of anti-vaxxers and the face of anti-misinformation in the way that he has the past few years.

“When I was getting my M.D. and Ph.D. and in New York, Rockefeller and Cornell in the 1980s, I always thought of becoming a vaccine scientist as something nobler. And, you know, it’s something that you do for patriotic reasons. The idea now that being vilified for it is — for people’s own political and personal gain — is truly troubling,” Hotez told The Hill in a recent interview.

The Texas-based researcher and author has studied and developed vaccine technology for 40 years. In that time, he has led teams in developing vaccines for diseases including schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, SARS and MERS.

Put plainly, Hotez knows infectious diseases. So, when the pandemic started, he felt ready to be a source of expertise amid the widespread confusion and uncertainty. But with this territory came the task of combating misinformation that sprang up as well, crystallizing what Hotez now refers to as his “parallel career,” which began before COVID-19. 

“That started because I have four adult kids including Rachel who has autism, intellectual disabilities. And a few years ago, I wrote a book called ‘Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism,’ which made me public enemy No. 1 or 2 with anti-vaccine groups. That’s when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. started attacking me years ago,” Hotez said. 

This attention spurred threats and intimidation toward him both online and offline. Just last year, Hotez shared on social media that a “couple of anti-vaxxers” had taunted him outside his home after he turned down a debate with Kennedy, one of the most prominent figures in the anti-vaccine movement and now an Independent presidential candidate.

“It’s scary at times, because … I’ve got people like Steve Bannon publicly declaring me a criminal or Roger Stone go after me on social media,” Hotez said. “And I have, you know, members of the House Freedom Caucus attack me. I have Sen. Rand Paul [R-Ky.] attacking me. So, it’s scary. Puts you in a very dark and scary place.” 

But he still finds his efforts to combat misinformation to be “meaningful,” saying pushing back on the anti-vaccine movement is just as important as developing vaccines. Amid the pandemic, Hotez also helped to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Corbevax, which was licensed and approved for use in India.

When asked what he thinks of all the public figures who have attacked or challenged him, Hotez characterizes them as simply “desperate for relevance.”

He doesn’t consider himself a political person and calls for the decoupling of anti-science sentiment from politics in his latest book, “The Deadly Rise of Anti-science: A Scientist’s Warning.”

“We’ve got to find a way to delink those things, because this one has such catastrophic consequences in terms of human lives lost,” he laments.

According to Hotez, the anti-science movement threatens to take the U.S. “to a dark place in American political life that we haven’t seen since the McCarthy era. And arguably, it’s even worse than that.” 

Despite the worrying trends he sees, his research still excites him, and he’s looking forward to new developments. His work on a potential vaccine against hookworms is showing evidence of efficacy.

There is only one other vaccine approved against parasitic infections: a malaria vaccine that was recommended by the World Health Organization in 2021. 

“Hookworm vaccine can be become the second parasitic disease vaccine. It’s what I began as an M.D. Ph.D. student in New York 40 years ago at Rockefeller University at Weill Cornell Medical School, so it’s wonderful to see it finally taking shape.”

Hotez is also holding his ground on social media, particularly on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, regularly sharing his thoughts on infectious diseases and shutting down unverified claims. But he hopes that eventually scientific authorities will take some of that weight off him. 

“My real hope is that, you know, this is what the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy should be doing,” Hotez said. “This is what the scientific societies should be doing. And, you know, I don’t think it should fall to individuals.” 

“I’m hoping eventually, somebody kind of takes this over,” he added.