Sunday, June 18, 2023 6:34:59 PM
Vaccine Scientist Peter Hotez Says He Was 'Stalked' After Billionaires—And Joe Rogan—Urge Him To Debate RFK Jr.
"New ‘Plandemic’ Video Peddles Misinformation, Conspiracies
"They died suddenly - then the anti-vax trolling started
"Debunking Steve Kirsch’s latest claims about covid vaccine deaths
"British Heart Foundation comments on 30,000 excess deaths lack important context""
[...] * Social media battles Plandemic conspiracy video
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52588682 ""
Ana Faguy Forbes Staff
I cover breaking news.
Jun 18, 2023,02:22pm EDT
Topline An ongoing Twitter debate over vaccine misinformation between podcaster Joe Rogan and scientist Peter Hotez has led a number of individuals—including billionaires Bill Ackman and Elon Musk—to urge Hotez to debate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in an online spat that purportedly led anti-vaxxers to show up at Hotez’s home to “stalk” him.
Vaccine scientist Peter Hotez says anti-vaxxers showed up at his Texas home in the aftermath of the ... [+]AP/John Mone
Key Facts
* The conflict started Saturday, after Hotez tweeted a Vice article that was critical of an interview Rogan did with Kennedy on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, in which Kennedy presented false claims about vaccines—including links to autism that most experts have discredited—which Hotez described ..
--------
[INSERT: The discredited doctor hailed by the anti-vaccine movement]
Riveting biography of Andrew Wakefield is a cautionary lesson in the legacy of hubris.
[...]
The modern wave of vaccine scepticism has its origins in the 1970s. That was when concerns (later determined to be unfounded) about the safety of a whole-cell vaccine against pertussis, or whooping cough, came to the fore in many high-income countries. In the 1980s and 1990s, a few organized groups opposed to vaccines emerged in many countries, including the United Kingdom.
P - It was in this context that, in 1998, Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues published a now-infamous and retracted paper in The Lancet, following which, in 2010, Wakefield was struck off the UK medical register for misconduct by the country’s General Medical Council. The fraudulent work on 12 children promoted a non-existent connection between autism and the MMR vaccine, used against measles, mumps and rubella. It propelled Wakefield to notoriety and turbocharged the anti-vaccine movement. He remains a headliner on the international vaccine-sceptic circuit as diseases once vanquished return because of falling rates of immunization. Many large epidemiological studies have found no difference in risk of developmental delays between children who receive the MMR vaccine and those who don’t1.
Vaccines stop diseases safely — why all the suspicion?
[...]
What follows is a roller-coaster ride. Wakefield’s findings were questioned in an interdisciplinary meeting at England’s Royal College of Surgeons in 1998, although it took a further 12 years for him to be stripped of his licence to practise. Deer has reported indefatigably throughout, including on Wakefield’s move to the United States, where he convinced an ever-expanding list of benefactors to support his various ventures. Among them was two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro — who has spoken up for the 2016 film Vaxxed made by Wakefield and producer Del Bigtree.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170577332
--------
* Rogan responded to Hotez’s criticism by inviting the vaccine scientist onto his podcast to debate Kennedy and pledging $100,000 to charity if Hotez agreed.
* Billionaire Bill Ackman then pledged ..
* Hotez—who has previously appeared on Rogan’s show—agreed to go on Rogan’s podcast “to clear the air,” but in separate tweets Hotez said he wanted to discuss getting more people vaccines and vaccine misinformation—an offer that Rogan didn’t see ..
* The scientist has also retweeted several people who chided the idea of debating Kennedy, including one ..
* Hotez told his Twitter followers Sunday that the Houston resident “was stalked in front of my home by a couple of antivaxers taunting me to debate RFKJr”—less than 24 hours after the initial Twitter argument began.
* Minutes later, a Twitter personality posted a video that appeared to show himself and another person shouting questions at Hotez outside a home, asking why Hotez wasn’t going to debate Kennedy and if the vaccine scientist believes “vaccine injuries” are real (it’s unclear whether the video corresponds to the incident Hotez mentioned).
Surprising Fact
Twitter owner Elon Musk was also among the choir of people defending Rogan’s request on Twitter. At one point, Musk suggested Hotez “hates charity” in an attempt to push Hotez to agree to Rogan’s terms.
Key Background
A Kennedy family scion and longshot 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, Kennedy has repeated dubious claims about vaccines for years, a tendency that has continued during the pandemic. During a three-hour appearance on Rogan’s podcast Thursday, Kennedy reiterated a number of his controversial claims about Covid-19 and vaccines. Kennedy falsely tied vaccines to autism, despite extensive evidence .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/health/measles-vaccine-autism.html .. to the contrary: “Everybody will say, ‘There’s just no study that shows autism and vaccines are connected.’ That’s just crazy. That’s people who are not looking at science.” This is not Kennedy’s first time spreading anti-vaccine claims; he was previously banned from Instagram for spreading the same claim that vaccines were linked to autism and for comparing Covid lockdowns to Nazi Germany. But Meta reinstated his account .. https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/05/tech/meta-rfk-anti-vax-instagram-hnk-intl/index.html .. after Kennedy announced his presidential bid. Kennedy’s podcast appearance is also not the first time Rogan has repeated or played host to false or dubious health claims. He made headlines throughout the pandemic for falsely claiming on his podcast that mRNA vaccines are gene therapy, that the risk for myocarditis—a heart muscle inflammation—is higher from vaccines than from Covid and that young, healthy people do not need a Covid vaccine.
Contra
Hotez—a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine .. https://www.bcm.edu/people-search/peter-hotez-23229 —spent much of the pandemic on Twitter debunking misinformation surrounding Covid-19 . Hotez was also part of the team that received .. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/10/corbevax-texas-coronavirus-vaccine/ .. a Nobel Prize nomination for their work to create a cheap and easy-to-make Covid-19 vaccine. This weekend’s Twitter disagreement is certainly not his first, but may be his most publicized rebuking of medical misinformation. In a separate tweet amid the debate Saturday, Hotez pointed to the number of lives lost due to “antivaccine disinformation,” and said has “nothing personal vs Joe, Elon, RFK Jr.” but is “hoping to halt more destruction.”
Further Reading
Joe Rogan’s Covid Claims: What Does The Science Actually Say? (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/jan/31/joe-rogan-covid-claims-what-does-the-science-actually-say
From Obscurity To A Nobel Prize Nomination: Houston Scientists Acclaimed For Their Patent-Free COVID-19 Vaccine (Texas Tribune)
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/10/corbevax-texas-coronavirus-vaccine/
Instagram Lifts Ban On Anti-Vaccine Activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. After Launch Of Presidential Bid (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/05/tech/meta-rfk-anti-vax-instagram-hnk-intl/index.html
Send me a secure tip .. https://www.forbes.com/tips/ .
Ana Faguy
I am a Washington D.C. based reporter. Before joining Forbes, I was a fact-checker at USA Today. My previous work includes E&E News, the... read more
https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/06/18/vaccine-scientist-peter-hotez-says-he-was-stalked-after-billionaires-and-joe-rogan-urge-him-to-debate-rfk-jr/?sh=4e31530b6362
"New ‘Plandemic’ Video Peddles Misinformation, Conspiracies
"They died suddenly - then the anti-vax trolling started
"Debunking Steve Kirsch’s latest claims about covid vaccine deaths
"British Heart Foundation comments on 30,000 excess deaths lack important context""
[...] * Social media battles Plandemic conspiracy video
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52588682 ""
Ana Faguy Forbes Staff
I cover breaking news.
Jun 18, 2023,02:22pm EDT
Topline An ongoing Twitter debate over vaccine misinformation between podcaster Joe Rogan and scientist Peter Hotez has led a number of individuals—including billionaires Bill Ackman and Elon Musk—to urge Hotez to debate anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in an online spat that purportedly led anti-vaxxers to show up at Hotez’s home to “stalk” him.
Vaccine scientist Peter Hotez says anti-vaxxers showed up at his Texas home in the aftermath of the ... [+]AP/John Mone
Key Facts
* The conflict started Saturday, after Hotez tweeted a Vice article that was critical of an interview Rogan did with Kennedy on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, in which Kennedy presented false claims about vaccines—including links to autism that most experts have discredited—which Hotez described ..
.. as “nonsense.”Spotify Has Stopped Even Sort of Trying to Stem Joe Rogan’s Vaccine Misinformation. It’s really true @annamerlan just awful. And from all the online attacks I’m receiving after this absurd podcast, it’s clear many actually believe this nonsense https://t.co/GwIFsOODC2
— Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) June 17, 2023
--------
[INSERT: The discredited doctor hailed by the anti-vaccine movement]
Riveting biography of Andrew Wakefield is a cautionary lesson in the legacy of hubris.
[...]
The modern wave of vaccine scepticism has its origins in the 1970s. That was when concerns (later determined to be unfounded) about the safety of a whole-cell vaccine against pertussis, or whooping cough, came to the fore in many high-income countries. In the 1980s and 1990s, a few organized groups opposed to vaccines emerged in many countries, including the United Kingdom.
P - It was in this context that, in 1998, Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues published a now-infamous and retracted paper in The Lancet, following which, in 2010, Wakefield was struck off the UK medical register for misconduct by the country’s General Medical Council. The fraudulent work on 12 children promoted a non-existent connection between autism and the MMR vaccine, used against measles, mumps and rubella. It propelled Wakefield to notoriety and turbocharged the anti-vaccine movement. He remains a headliner on the international vaccine-sceptic circuit as diseases once vanquished return because of falling rates of immunization. Many large epidemiological studies have found no difference in risk of developmental delays between children who receive the MMR vaccine and those who don’t1.
Vaccines stop diseases safely — why all the suspicion?
[...]
What follows is a roller-coaster ride. Wakefield’s findings were questioned in an interdisciplinary meeting at England’s Royal College of Surgeons in 1998, although it took a further 12 years for him to be stripped of his licence to practise. Deer has reported indefatigably throughout, including on Wakefield’s move to the United States, where he convinced an ever-expanding list of benefactors to support his various ventures. Among them was two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro — who has spoken up for the 2016 film Vaxxed made by Wakefield and producer Del Bigtree.
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170577332
--------
* Rogan responded to Hotez’s criticism by inviting the vaccine scientist onto his podcast to debate Kennedy and pledging $100,000 to charity if Hotez agreed.
* Billionaire Bill Ackman then pledged ..
.. an additional $150,000 if Hotez agreed to the debate, which led to other public figures and vaccine skeptics to make similar pledges ..I will add $150,000 to @joerogan’s wager so now $250,000 can go to charity and the public can hear an open debate on an important topic. https://t.co/dp3XCiqllS
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) June 18, 2023
, bringing the total charitable pledges up to at least $600,000.I will add $100,000 making it $600K! Debate him.
— Steve Kirsch (@stkirsch) June 18, 2023
Sadly, Hotez, nor any other "expert" will not debate any "misinformation superspreader."
They are all afraid of things like facts and data.
* Hotez—who has previously appeared on Rogan’s show—agreed to go on Rogan’s podcast “to clear the air,” but in separate tweets Hotez said he wanted to discuss getting more people vaccines and vaccine misinformation—an offer that Rogan didn’t see ..
.. as a response to his request for Hotez to debate Kennedy.This is a non answer. I challenged you publicly because you publicly quote tweeted and agreed with that dogshit vice article. If you’re really serious about what you stand for, you now have a massive opportunity for a debate that will reach the largest audience a discussion… https://t.co/g1FGalC0Ym
— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) June 17, 2023
* The scientist has also retweeted several people who chided the idea of debating Kennedy, including one ..
.. who called the suggestion “absurd” since Kennedy—who is well-known for his vaccine skepticism—is a “crank.”For years now, sheltered talkers have treated the pandemic as a spectacle, divorced from reality. @joerogan absurd demand that @PeterHotez debate a crank, shows he values theater and performance above the health of children he’ll never meet. https://t.co/qagJgGRnIc
— Jonathan Howard MD (@19joho) June 18, 2023
* Hotez told his Twitter followers Sunday that the Houston resident “was stalked in front of my home by a couple of antivaxers taunting me to debate RFKJr”—less than 24 hours after the initial Twitter argument began.
* Minutes later, a Twitter personality posted a video that appeared to show himself and another person shouting questions at Hotez outside a home, asking why Hotez wasn’t going to debate Kennedy and if the vaccine scientist believes “vaccine injuries” are real (it’s unclear whether the video corresponds to the incident Hotez mentioned).
Surprising Fact
Twitter owner Elon Musk was also among the choir of people defending Rogan’s request on Twitter. At one point, Musk suggested Hotez “hates charity” in an attempt to push Hotez to agree to Rogan’s terms.
Key Background
A Kennedy family scion and longshot 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, Kennedy has repeated dubious claims about vaccines for years, a tendency that has continued during the pandemic. During a three-hour appearance on Rogan’s podcast Thursday, Kennedy reiterated a number of his controversial claims about Covid-19 and vaccines. Kennedy falsely tied vaccines to autism, despite extensive evidence .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/health/measles-vaccine-autism.html .. to the contrary: “Everybody will say, ‘There’s just no study that shows autism and vaccines are connected.’ That’s just crazy. That’s people who are not looking at science.” This is not Kennedy’s first time spreading anti-vaccine claims; he was previously banned from Instagram for spreading the same claim that vaccines were linked to autism and for comparing Covid lockdowns to Nazi Germany. But Meta reinstated his account .. https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/05/tech/meta-rfk-anti-vax-instagram-hnk-intl/index.html .. after Kennedy announced his presidential bid. Kennedy’s podcast appearance is also not the first time Rogan has repeated or played host to false or dubious health claims. He made headlines throughout the pandemic for falsely claiming on his podcast that mRNA vaccines are gene therapy, that the risk for myocarditis—a heart muscle inflammation—is higher from vaccines than from Covid and that young, healthy people do not need a Covid vaccine.
Contra
Hotez—a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine .. https://www.bcm.edu/people-search/peter-hotez-23229 —spent much of the pandemic on Twitter debunking misinformation surrounding Covid-19 . Hotez was also part of the team that received .. https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/10/corbevax-texas-coronavirus-vaccine/ .. a Nobel Prize nomination for their work to create a cheap and easy-to-make Covid-19 vaccine. This weekend’s Twitter disagreement is certainly not his first, but may be his most publicized rebuking of medical misinformation. In a separate tweet amid the debate Saturday, Hotez pointed to the number of lives lost due to “antivaccine disinformation,” and said has “nothing personal vs Joe, Elon, RFK Jr.” but is “hoping to halt more destruction.”
Further Reading
Joe Rogan’s Covid Claims: What Does The Science Actually Say? (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/jan/31/joe-rogan-covid-claims-what-does-the-science-actually-say
From Obscurity To A Nobel Prize Nomination: Houston Scientists Acclaimed For Their Patent-Free COVID-19 Vaccine (Texas Tribune)
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/10/corbevax-texas-coronavirus-vaccine/
Instagram Lifts Ban On Anti-Vaccine Activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. After Launch Of Presidential Bid (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/05/tech/meta-rfk-anti-vax-instagram-hnk-intl/index.html
Send me a secure tip .. https://www.forbes.com/tips/ .
Ana Faguy
I am a Washington D.C. based reporter. Before joining Forbes, I was a fact-checker at USA Today. My previous work includes E&E News, the... read more
https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/06/18/vaccine-scientist-peter-hotez-says-he-was-stalked-after-billionaires-and-joe-rogan-urge-him-to-debate-rfk-jr/?sh=4e31530b6362
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