Thread by @MotherJones

Dr. @PeterHotez is joining us LIVE to talk about the vaccine, how to increase vaccine acceptance in a time of rampant anti-science rhetoric, and how we can prevent the next pandemic. It should be an informative conversation! We'll be live-tweeting below 👇 twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

.@kieraevebutler asks, "In the war between the vaccines and the variants, who is winning so far?"

We're facing a "tipping point," @PeterHotez explains, but there is good news! "By the summer," he says, "I think we could potentially vaccinate our way out of the epidemic."

The not-so-good news, @PeterHotez adds, is that the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first identified in the United Kingdom, is accelerating in parts of the US. "That's really worrisome."

On the AstraZeneca vaccine: The US has procured so much vaccine that even if public confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine is not high, @PeterHotez says, "It may not have that big an impact."

"The problem I see is, in Africa and Latin America, we don't have a lot of options."

These two minutes, in which @PeterHotez discusses the rise of the anti-vaccine movement and his personal experience with it, is worth watching in full:

"The reason why COVID-19 has killed more than half a million Americans—yes it's SARS-CoV-2—but it's been facilitated by this defiance in science. It's death both by COVID-19 and by anti-science." —@PeterHotez

"Because we know what happens if we only vaccinate the United States, the UK, and Western Europe—that's not gonna go well," explains @PeterHotez. "It'll be a humanitarian catastrophe."

And that's the end of that! Thank you so much @PeterHotez, we learned so much and had quite a blast talking about ~sCiEncE~!!

To watch the full live stream, head to our Mother Jones Live YouTube page. Thanks for watching!