Anti-science: A Conversation with Peter Hotez

In this episode of Northwell Health's 20-Minute Health Talk, host Dr. Chethan Sathya speaks with Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrician, vaccine scientist and one of the most prominent voices against the anti-science movement. Hotez is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and co-developed Corbevax, a low-cost, patent-free COVID-19 vaccine.

What the conversation covers

• How his daughter Rachel's autism diagnosis drew him into the vaccine debate, and made him a target of anti-vaccine activists
• Why communicating evolving science is hard, and how misinformation fills the gaps
• Debunking claims such as "turbo cancers" from COVID-19 vaccines
• Why childhood vaccines (MMR, hepatitis B) and flu and COVID shots matter, including for heart health
• The political and financial forces that drive organized anti-science

The evidence

Large studies involving millions of children have found no link between vaccines and autism, and there is no credible evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause aggressive "turbo" cancers. Hotez's books, Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism and The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science, set out the evidence in detail.

Related reading: Vaccines: No Causal Link With Autism, Vaccine Hesitancy and Risks and Consequences of Antiscience.