Share this page!

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD Profile picture
Twitter logo
26 Jul, 5 tweets, 3 min read
Many thanks ⁦@morningmika⁩ ⁦@JoeNBC⁩ ⁦@Morning_Joe⁩ for hosting me this morning on an unfolding dire situation here in the South due to the delta variant and low vaccination rates. The low vaccination rates in Southern states are not accidental…
The widespread refusal to get COVID19 vaccines follows months and months of antiscience aggression from the far right, including elected members of the US Congress, CPAC, conservative news outlets, and amplified on social media including Facebook
I’m quite concerned about the school year starting in the South in a few weeks: Only 15-18% adolescents vaccinated, 30-40% young adults, delta accelerating, no vaccine mandates, no mask mandates, I’m quite worried
I see the origins of the antivaccine adoption by the far right starting in 2014-15 beginning with the health freedom links to the Republican Tea Party here in Texas, I recently wrote on this @jclinicalinvest jci.org/articles/view/…
Special thanks to @Morning_Joe for highlighting the book this AM @JHUPress

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @PeterHotez

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD Profile picture
27 Jul
1/4: I see some criticizing CDC for having to revise their mask guidance. For me, this is not such a big deal, here's why:
2/4: Based on data with B.1.1.7 variant, there were data showing vaccination was also halting asymptomatic transmission, meaning virus shedding, so the guidance to stop wearing masks was justifiable. Risk breakthrough infections was low
3/4: But delta variant is a game changer, especially when it's been allowed to accelerate due to disappointing vaccination rates in the South. Greater virus shedding, higher breakthroughs, almost like a different coronavirus
Read 5 tweets
Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD Profile picture
26 Jul
Many thanks ⁦@NicolleDWallace⁩ for hosting me @DeadlineWH⁩ with the amazing ⁦@esglaude⁩ ⁦@selectedwisdom⁩ as delta accelerates across the South we face a new issue: schools here open in just 2-3 wks but almost no adolescents vaccinated, few young adults
I’m concerned about many adolescents kids exposed to the highly contagious delta variant, and potential hospitalizations, but also long covid’s neurological complications and whether they might be linked to cognitive declines as seen in adults, we’ll need to understand this
This defiance of vaccines and masks is just so self defeating for all
Read 4 tweets
Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD Profile picture
25 Jul
Receiving daily emails from distressed vaccinated individuals who cannot convince their loved ones to get the COVID19 vaccine. Most often older parents of an adult, sometimes pregnant daughter, or adolescent. The antiscience disinformation empire has caused a national tragedy
Tragically the empire was not established overnight, it built up and evolved over many years. It was enabled in part by USG + DHHS (going back several administrations) refusal to sound the alarm and launch a counteroffensive. I spent a part of my career saying this day would come
Now at least there is some acknowledgment that there’s a problem, but even now few are willing to get out there and identify the 3 heads of this highly evolved and evil antiscience empire, that’s what I’ve done thedailybeast.com/biden-battles-…
Read 7 tweets
Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD Profile picture
23 Jul
Many thanks ⁦@AlisynCamerota⁩ for hosting me @CNN discussing the return of COVID19 in the South the defiance and refusal of vaccines remains strong even among survivors and those at greatest risk. Their rhetoric is copy pasted from CPAC and conservative news outlets Image
On that basis we can say that far right elements, including elected members of the US Congress and conservative news outlets brought Covid back to the South. A self inflicted wound of monumental proportions
Here in the Southern US we have <16-20% adolescents vaccinated, maybe only a little better among young adults, few if any mask mandates (our only backstop) and now delta is the overwhelming variant. What about this situation makes people think this is going to go well?
Read 4 tweets
Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD Profile picture
23 Jul
1/4 I see #FoxNewsKills trending? But as I write in @PLOSBiology it's that ANTI-SCIENCE KILLS. Anti-science = major reason why >600,000 Americans lost their lives from COVID-19 due to defiance of masks, social distancing and now vaccines. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/ar…
2/4 Anti-science killed more Americans in 2020-21 than terrorism, cyberattacks, nuke proliferation combined. Our US Govt builds in infrastructre to combat those things but not anti-science. For >20 yrs I've fought a lonely struggle to get US Govt to take anti-science seriously
3/4 We can defeat anti-science but it requires US Govt to recognize it's importance and not resort to simple throw away statements like blaming Facebook. Anti-science has a sophisticated infrastructure and in the case of bio-sciences the three greatest offenders currently are...
Read 5 tweets
Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD Profile picture
22 Jul
Many thanks Jim ⁦@Acosta⁩ for hosting me with my friend colleague ⁦@ashishkjha⁩ Covid now accelerating in Southern states where vaccine refusal and defiance is high due to antiscience aggression from the political far right, including some members US Congress
This is a self inflicted wound for the nation. The tragic reality is that if not for the antivaccine antiscience aggression from a group of US Congressional members and far right cable networks we could have possibly fended off delta. We would still need to vaccinate the world
When the history of COVID19 in America is written we’ll have to face the reality that far right extremism helped lead the return of COVID19 in the Summer of 2021
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @PeterHotez has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @PeterHotez!

Read all threads by @PeterHotez

:(