Canada is special for me. When my grandfather Morris Goldberg + his brother fled antisemitism he made Montreal his home, half-sister to Winnipeg. His parents were actors in Yiddish theater in Paris, Rue des Rosiers, got out well before the Nazis came in, wiped out what was left
Many ask me about the origin of "Hotez" on my father's side. A bit of a mystery, they were from Galicia, Ukraine-Poland. The Z not too unusual, for instance Norman Podhoretz, who I seem to remember once wrote an essay on the "Galtizianers", but I couldn't find it just now
It's actually a reason I confronted #antivax anti-science groups when they made that pivot to the far right in 2015, and wrote the book. Working on a paper now about the antiscience rallies in Berlin on August 29 sponsored by neo-nazi groups. I can smell antisemitism a mile away
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I don’t understand what NY Times is trying to do today, I mean I get the part below, but why that headline? And why bury the overwhelming benefits of Covid immunizations? Why say “for most people” the benefits outweighs the risks. Say it as it is >99.9%
And you point out how 200,000 Americans needlessly perished because they refused Covid vaccines from a predatory and political vaccine campaign amazon.com/Deadly-Rise-An…
Between this and the mainstream media’s obsession with false equivalency between natural Covid origins vs gain of function/lab leak, they are not helpful
1/n update on Covid in U.S. first some good news, latest from CDC shows we’re now at about our lowest levels of new COVID hospitalizations since the beginning of the pandemic…
2/n also Covid wastewater numbers looking pretty good, so as I said a few weeks ago, it looks like we might a low Covid spring or at least May. Good for HS or college graduations
3/n the concerning trend is one @EricTopol and others pointed earlier today namely these newer FLiRT variants, if and when they go over 50% will the numbers rise again?
1/n I’m seeing on social media and popular podcasts, awful nonsense and false claims about Covid immunizations in pregnancy causing autism in newborns. This is dangerous health disinformation at multiple levels. Here is the real story.
2/n First the adverse health impact of Covid on both pregnant mother and new baby is undisputed, it’s devastating for both, especially high maternal morbidity and mortality journals.plos.org/plosone/articl…
3/n moreover the health benefits of Covid vaccinations for both mother and newborn are also indisputable and life saving. This from @LancetDigitalH thelancet.com/journals/landi…
1/n Latest from @IHME_UW and their new Global Burden of Disease 2021 data for COVID19 excess mortality in 2021. A few things: First, it helps dispel the myth that LMIC nations on the African Continent were spared the ravages of Covid. A reason…
2/n a reason is low vaccination rates. My view: the overemphasis on speed or new technologies and innovations, there were insufficient mRNA and particle vaccine doses made in 2020-21, and these were bought up quickly by high income countries.
3/n I believe if our @TexasChildrens vaccine group received more international assistance we could have moved faster to help LMICs in Africa. As it is even without that help (or very modest help), at least 100 million doses of our low-cost, patent-free Covid vaccine administered