“Maybe @PeterHotez just hates charity,” Elon Musk recently tweeted. Here Musk was referring to Peter Hotez turning down an offer of $100,000, which he could then donate to a charity of his choosing, to debate Robert Kennedy Jr on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
Hotez agreed to go on Rogan’s show to explain his stance on vaccines, but not to directly debate Kennedy. For years, Hotez has been under attack from the anti-vaccination community, and more generally from a plethora of conspirators. Consequently, Hotez seems reluctant to give Kennedy a platform to embrace nonsensical views on vaccines.
Hotez has long claimed that 200,000 unvaccinated Americans died needlessly during the Delta and BA.1 Omicron waves in 2021 and 2022. Many refused the vaccine, he says, due to widespread misinformation. describes Hotez this in his book, The deadly rise of anti-science.
What’s especially strange about Musk’s tweet is that Hotez is completely mischaracterized. A renowned researcher and professor of pediatrics, molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine*, he has worked on behalf of charitable or non-profit organizations for decades.
Neglected tropical diseases
Among other humanitarian pursuits, Hotez pioneered the fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in developing countries. Twenty years ago Hotez and colleagues coined the term. He calls NTDs “the most important diseases you’ve never heard of,” because they affect the world’s most vulnerable, poor populations. NTDs affect more than one in six people worldwide, often the very poorest, and cause significant mortality and morbidity, including an estimated 35,000 deaths a day.
But, without commercial prospects NTDs have been largely ignored and underfunded by the pharmaceutical industry. Historically, pharma has allocated less than 0.5 percent of global drug investment to NTDs.
For the past 20 years, Hotez has made it a mission to do what he can to build awareness around the diseases and develop treatments. Hotez is author of Forgotten people, forgotten diseases: the neglected tropical diseases and their impact on global health and development. In it he describes the heterogeneous group of infections that are common in developing regions in Africa, Asia and America. They include onchocerciasis (river blindness), African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, cholera, Chagas disease and dengue fever, among others. These are often chronic and debilitating diseases caused by parasites, bacteria, viruses, protozoa and other pathogens.
COVID-19
Hotez has also been a prominent developer and advocate of the Covid-19 vaccine, not only in the US, but also internationally. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Hotez collaborated with Maria Elena Bottazzi to develop a low-cost, patent-free vaccine. The overarching goal of this nonprofit was to expand the reach of vaccines to the lower income regions of the world.
The formula of the protein subunit vaccine is similar in structure to the hepatitis B vaccine. It can be named and approved by a vaccine manufacturer in any low- or middle-income country. The local company in turn produces the vaccine and, together with the local authorities, organizes a distribution system for the delivery of vaccines to clinics and hospitals across the country. In India, the vaccine is called Corbevax and is licensed to the Indian biopharmaceutical company Biological E. Limited. In Indonesia, the domestic company Bio Farma is responsible for the production of the vaccine, which it calls IndoVac.
The harmful bullying of Hotez by Rogan and Musk on Twitter is typical of today’s culture in which stirring the pot is considered more important — attracts more attention — than sober, meaningful discussion. Perhaps even more disturbing is Musk’s demeaning tone when he tweets that Hotez is “afraid of public debate because he knows he’s wrong.”
Hotez is a respected vaccine scientist who has devoted his entire career to medicine and public health. In this regard, it is understandable to reject a debate with a crusader against vaccines. It would empower Kennedy and legitimize it in the eyes of many viewers as an equal opponent, which he most definitely is not.