Peter Doocy
Appearances
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Quickly Folds to Canada as Reality Sets In
You're being a little mean to us because they're being mean to us. Here, play this clip. I would just ask my friends in Canada to let's tamp down the rhetoric. I understand politics and it's a political season there. Seriously?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Quickly Folds to Canada as Reality Sets In
But frankly, the premier, he's been, I mean, look, just tamp it down, please, over there, okay? Just throwing down the hockey gloves. Stop that rhetoric. And let's just look at what we're trying to do. We love Canada, but look, there's some big issues there.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Quickly Folds to Canada as Reality Sets In
And we're not going to tolerate anything but them stopping killing Americans and doing what's right with respect to things like steel and aluminum, which they've been dumping into our country and that's stopping.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Glitches Out in Public as His Life Falls Apart
We love Canada, but look, there's some big issues there, and we're not going to tolerate anything but them stopping killing Americans and doing what's right with respect to things like steel and aluminum, which they've been dumping into our country, and that's stopping.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Glitches Out in Public as His Life Falls Apart
But frankly, the premier, he's been, I mean, look, just tamp it down, please, over there, okay? Just throwing down the hockey gloves. Stop that rhetoric, and let's just look at what we're trying to do.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Makes Tesla Commercial as He Tanks Markets
President Trump buying a new car while there are some folks who will see this flip at home and they are struggling with their retirement accounts down at the moment, uncertainty about work ahead.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Panicking Trump Goes Nuts on Tariff Day
Tomorrow, there's still time for him to change his mind, but we are told he has settled on one of two possibilities, either a 20% flat tariff or adjustable tariffs where we are, the United States is implementing something on another country based on what their tariff is on us.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Panicked Trump Screws Himself as Term Collapses
And we're just going to, I mean, and I'm so pleased with the trade team and the vice president, because we are all on the same page, moving in the same direction under the president's leadership, and it's working beautifully.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Panicked Trump Screws Himself as Term Collapses
President Trump has had the best 50 days of any president in American history. And there's no sign inside here or outside there that that's going to slow down because we got a lot of good stuff. to go.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
French President Puts the Dagger in Trump to All of France
We know that some officials here were miffed that Zelensky showed up last week without a suit for his meeting in the Oval Office. But Elon Musk never wears a suit.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
French President Puts the Dagger in Trump to All of France
So what is the dress code?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
French President Puts the Dagger in Trump to All of France
Was he spooked by Zelensky getting kicked out?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Furious World Leaders Destroy Trump on Trade War
This is not a negotiation, Jesse. This is a national emergency associated with chronic and massive trade deficits that are brought about by higher tariffs and higher non-tariff barriers that take our jobs, that take our factories, that lead to massive, trade deficits that result in massive transfers of wealth into foreign hands that jeopardize our manufacturing base and defense industrial base.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Furious World Leaders Destroy Trump on Trade War
So, no, this is not a negotiation. It's a national emergency. And the president is treating it as such. And it's Liberation Day, Jesse, from an international trade system.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Musk Gets Instant Karma as Trump Tariffs Screw Him
Play this clip. It was interesting to hear Elon Musk at the beginning talk about a zero tariff zone with Europe. He doesn't understand that. And the thing that's, I think, important about Elon to understand, he sells cars. That's what he does.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Musk Gets Instant Karma as Trump Tariffs Screw Him
And if you look, for example, at the Tesla factories in Texas, they're assembly plants and they get a lot of their content from China, Mexico, Japan and Taiwan and elsewhere.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Musk Gets Instant Karma as Trump Tariffs Screw Him
But I want to talk about Doge for a second. Okay, I know there's been a lot of people get, there's been some freak out, there's been some concern, there's been a lot of emotion. And I would just tell you, do I want to make our government more efficient? Do I want to be able to do a little more with a little less? Because then I put more money into the great work that we do.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Musk Gets Instant Karma as Trump Tariffs Screw Him
Yeah, I want to do that. But you can't do that without good people. And so, though I want us to be more efficient, I also look, and as I think of Doge cutting things, I don't know about that elsewhere, but we actually build things here. You can't cut your way to a new road. You can't cut your way to a new bridge. You can't cut your way into a new air traffic control system.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Musk Gets Instant Karma as Trump Tariffs Screw Him
So we're actually going to build in this department. And if I don't, and you don't all build with me, The president's going to come back in probably four months and go, where are the roads? Where are the bridges? Where's the airspace revamp? And he's going to give us a very hard time.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Sen. Mark Kelly on Trump’s ‘Worst 50 Days’
President Trump has had the best 50 days of any president in American history. And there's no sign inside here or outside there that that's going to slow down because we got a lot of good stuff to go. And we're just.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Rude Awakening as MAGA Crashes Abroad
I have no doubt in my mind that we can win this election. Forget about what you're being told by the ABC and the Guardian and the other hate media. Forget about that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Rude Awakening as MAGA Crashes Abroad
Well, I answered that question yesterday. I think the point that I see that's of interest as well is what we would do in relation to education funding and health funding. We are absolutely committed to health and education funding as the numbers appear in the budget papers.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Rude Awakening as MAGA Crashes Abroad
So before the Prime Minister goes off trying to scare people again, and that's what he's doing at the moment because he's trying to pick fights, he's trying to scare people, but he's, you know, maybe good at that. I'll tell you what he's very bad at, that is helping families.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Rude Awakening as MAGA Crashes Abroad
Well, we've spoken before and including yesterday in relation to it. I want young Australians who are going to school to get the best education they can. I don't want them indoctrinated according to the views of the lecturer at university or in relation to the views of the particular teacher.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Rude Awakening as MAGA Crashes Abroad
I want our kids to be taught according to community beliefs and standards, and I think that is the expectation of families. Not controversial here in the suburbs. It might be at the ABC, but not controversial here in the suburbs,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Rude Awakening as MAGA Crashes Abroad
I want to make sure that our kids, whether they're at primary school or secondary school or indeed young Australians who are at universities, receiving the education that their parents would expect them to receive. And our position will reflect community standards in relation to what is being taught at our schools and our universities.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Rude Awakening as MAGA Crashes Abroad
And you've seen some recent examples in relation to law school and the requirements being made. I think it was Macquarie University at the time. You've seen other academics who are out as part of protests on the streets and teachers similarly. That's being translated into the classroom. That's not something I support.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Gets Rude Awakening as MAGA Crashes Abroad
I support young Australians being able to think freely, being able to assess what's before them and not being told and indoctrinated with something that is the agenda of others.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
Well, we're going to then I miss our discussions during the pandemic. A lot of people don't realize that a lot of the people who were going on talking about covid, we were often talking behind the scenes to compare notes because there was so much incoming. I don't think any one person could keep it up with everything.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
I think the disinformation is so dominant right now. You know, parents are coming in and they make the pediatrician feel like they're not keeping up with the literature. They are keeping up with the literature, but just not the fake stuff. And it's getting more sophisticated now. Well, yes and no. It's getting more science-y sounding to make it seem plausible. I mean, let me give you an example.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
So you had the Florida Surgeon General, Latipo, gets up there and he says mRNA vaccines are causing turbo cancers because they're inserting foreign nucleic acid into our genome. Okay, well... You know, if you think about it a minute, there's no such thing as a turbo cancer.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
It's a totally made up term where if you're, you know, if you're busy seeing patients all day saying, Hmm, is that something I missed, the turbo cancer? And then, you know, the lipid nanoparticle will deliver its package of nucleic acid past the cell membrane into the cytoplasm, but it doesn't get into the nucleus. For that, you need electroporation. That's why we have no licensed DNA vaccines.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
But most pediatricians are not going to have that information at their fingertips. And the fact that we have Even if some residual nucleic acid does get into the nucleus, we have proteins of our innate immune system that block incorporation of foreign nucleic acid into our genome. Otherwise, if we didn't have that, that's part of our innate immune system.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
If we didn't have that, every time we ate a hamburger, we'd have cow DNA in our genome. And And then the likelihood that's going to happen next to an oncogen is even more remote. So it's total BS. But, you know, I mean, I have an MD and a PhD and think about biochemistry and cells all the time. But, you know, there's not...
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
one of the things I think would be helpful is that if we had, you know, an Uber website where the pediatrician or the primary care physician could go to it and cause, you know, these things tend to circulate, um, and amplify and go viral, um, in batches. So, you know, they, same stuff keeps coming up for a month at a time until they switch to something else.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
So, you know, you were a valuable source for me then and helping me in many things.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
It'd be nice if there was a disinformation website, you could look it up and say, oh, that's, uh, No, that's not true. And here's why. And so pediatricians could debunk it in real time.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
The AI is kind of a two-edged sword too. Our friend Renee DiResta, who formerly heads the Stanford Internet Observatory until it had to close down because of political pressure, wrote an excellent article in The Atlantic early on in the pandemic entitled, Disinformation is About to Go Infinite, referring to the role of AI disinformation. And I got asked,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
a year or so ago to review an article, and they invited me to write a commentary for JAMA Internal Medicine. And this group from Australia had used three AI programs to see if they could generate health disinformation. And they picked two topics, vaping and vaccines. And they used the Google program, ChatGPT, and the Microsoft AI program. And
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
Actually, Google and Microsoft blocked it, but ChatGPT, I think it was, let it rip. And they generated something like 60, 100 disinformation blogs in an hour. And these disinformation blogs could be tailored to individual groups, whether it was African-American populations or pregnant women. And it, in a very clever and nefarious way, mixed real references with fake references that sounded real.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
So you couldn't tell what was real, what was fake. So it was completely diabolical. And this is what we're going to be up against. That's going to be a challenge. I think the other challenge, you know, with in terms of pediatricians or docs doing having public outreach, you know, the other barrier we face is it's not just the words of the enemies.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
It's it's the silence of the friends, which by that I mean the academic health centers in particular are. are not, as we both know, they're not terribly happy necessarily of us being out there. Because the offices of communications at most academic health centers in Baylor and Texas Children's are better than most.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
are all about fiercely protecting the brand and they don't want the docs screwing it up for them. And so what you get is kind of, well, you're an academic, you're free to speak out. We can't stop that, dot, dot, dot, but don't screw this up and get the institution in trouble. And of course,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
if you're out there in the public domain enough you will screw it up and you will get the institution in trouble and you need to know you have the backing of of the institution and and so i think the academic health centers have not and actually in hospitals in general have not evolved to the point where they've figured out how they want their doctors countering all the disinformation.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
So the result is silence. And this is now having such a damaging effect on health care and partly the situation we're in because of that.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
But I think an important question was how do we support our pediatricians? because I am worried about the profession. We are starting to see declines in people interested in matching in pediatrics. It's happening in all the primary care specialties, but I think especially pediatrics. And people like to talk about the lower compensation of pediatricians, but That's not new.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
That's always been the case. I think part of it is, as Dr. Singh was starting to allude to, is dealing with the moral injury, which then translates into burnout. And I think one of the things that I'd like to see is, how do we better empower pediatricians and make them feel... like what they are, which is the most important person in the room.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
I can't imagine anything more, and I still believe this, more noble and more and more important than our nation's pediatricians? And how do we kind of schmooze them up and have them recognize their importance?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
And one of the things I've been kicking around is, could we recreate pediatric residencies to make it more focused around education about how healthcare systems work, how private equity in healthcare works? Put them as leaders in healthcare rather than as, individuals who are the first to get picked off by both the healthcare system and the disinformation system.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
And so I think we have to really look at some of those things.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
Well, there's a lot to digest, and I don't think we understand the full implications. But, you know, the the attack on science, biomedicine, especially in the virology and infectious disease space has been pretty awful. And I think it's starting to translate into breakdowns in our infectious disease and pandemic preparedness. I think the measles epidemic in West Texas...
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
why why patients are saying this remember they themselves are victims of this disinformation machine and and so to the specific point that was made you know tying it to pharma this is coming out of the this is this unholy alliance between the health and wellness industry and libertarian philosophy because one of the one of the ways that the health and wellness industry
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
the business model depends on denigrating mainstream biomedical science and interventions. And so that means not only attacking the pharma companies, but trying to make claims, and I've even seen this, that the medical schools are nothing more than PR representatives of public relations, PR reps for the pharma companies. And they're intimately tied up. So that's where that comes from, right?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
Because that was done because the health and wellness industry not only has to discredit the pharma companies, they have to discredit the medical schools that are telling patients, don't take B-decinine vitamin A and clarithromycin, get the MMR vaccine. And then they have to start portraying scientists and physicians as cartoon villains or public enemies. It's all very much a coordinated attack.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
And I think knowing that makes it more helpful because then you realize where this is coming from.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
does any of that sound new to you curious well this is again you know i know i sound like a broken record you know the maha movement is in my view a little more than um an economic stimulus package for the health wellness influencer industry so you know let's take a couple of those points um the the fact they're going to quote do gold standard science in fact that's that's what was said uh yesterday or two days ago in the new england journal of medicine paper about why they're going to withhold
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
pediatric covid vaccines because they make it sound like they're the ones coming in with gold standard science it's it's absolute nonsense so the fda and the cdc have been practicing gold standard science for for decades where they've been a model for the world but you know this is part of how they this is part of the propaganda machine to denigrate mainstream about biomedical sciences and then you know the environmental toxin i mean it's you know i wrote you know
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
One of the ways I got involved in combating anti-vaccine activism was the NIH in 2017 asked me to talk to Mr. Kennedy, and I had a year-long conversation with him, and that was the basis for my book, Vaccines Did Not Cause Racial Autism, about my daughter.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
Um, you know, cause I would discuss with Bobby and as, as I was calling them, you know, the, um, uh, the autism genes and the genetic basis of autism. And I said, you know, there, it doesn't mean that it's all the rise and apparent rise in autism cases, mostly due to shifting, uh, definitions and case criteria for autism. But I said there is some environmental influence.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
And I talked to him about several environmental exposures that could help to create autism. For instance, if you're pregnant and not aware of it and you're on an anti-seizure medicine called Depakote or valproic acid, that interacts with autism genes early on in pregnancy, and your child has a higher likelihood of being born with an autism phenotype.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
It was actually both predicted and predictable. It's not like this thing came out of nowhere. I had written an article in 2016, almost 10 years ago, called Texas and its measles epidemics that more or less predicted this was going to happen, even identified the county where it would begin.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
And I said to him, I said, you know, you're an environmental attorney. You should be all over these environmental exposures because there is a role. And he had zero interest. I mean, less than zero interest because it was all about suing vaccine companies. So, you know, all the stuff that he's saying is, maybe there's a few,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
threads of light there but a lot of it is is is disingenuous and and um um and and meant to pursue their own agenda whatever that is when they wake up in the morning after saying your thoughts
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
in Gaines County because we had started to see this steep decline in vaccination rates across the rural conservative areas of West Texas, in part because of libertarian ideologies. But then it picked up momentum in two places. One, it kind of converged with the health and wellness and influencer movement
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
That is based on buying in bulk, whatever it can and jacking up the price and selling with a telehealth visit. That's where ivermectin comes from. That's where hydroxychloroquine come from. And so you starting to see those forces merge. And so when our good friend, Mr. Kennedy, you know, is Health and Human Services Secretary.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
Well, something that gives me hope is Dr. Singh. I mean, listening to her, how articulate she is, and I'm so proud that she's our chief medical officer at Texas Children's Hospital. I mean, what could be better than that, right? I mean, just that was really brilliant. And, by the way, the pediatricians at Texas Children's are an extraordinary group of people.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
I mean, and pediatricians in general in our country. I mean, the commitment, the passion, I mean, it comes through every time you talk to an American pediatrician most times. And so that gives me a lot of hope. Yeah. The other thing that gives me hope is the science itself is extraordinary.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
I mean, we made a low-cost COVID vaccine that reached 100 million people in India and Indonesia, showing that you can actually bypass big pharma companies to do that. We did that in our labs at Texas Children's. Now we have a new hookworm anemia vaccine that's protecting close to 100%. We're excited about that. Finally, we got the mRNA technology working to a point where...
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
and getting reliable results. And now we're looking at cancer vaccines with that technology. So I think I could imagine a whole new generation of cancer vaccines and maybe vaccines for other chronic conditions, including neurodegenerative conditions. That's exciting. The problem that we're going to face is our technology
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
has outpaced our ability to do this, has outpaced our political social instruments to get them accepted. And that's going to be the big challenge. And so how we... kind of bring this back and start making that bridge and reaching people to get them to accept all of this exciting developments in biomedical science and to somehow talk about the dangers of what's happening with disinformation.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
I think this is going to be one of our biggest challenges.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
When asked about the MMR vaccine, you know, he pairs it with, hey, you can either get the MMR vaccine or you can get this kind of useless cocktail of interventions of budesonide and vitamin A and clarithromycin and cod liver oil. And people are saying, well, where the heck does that come from? It comes out of the health and wellness and influencer movement, which is now he's adopted that. And
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
Well, there is an accountability mechanism. I mean, some of the worst offenders have now had their board certification revoked and that sort of thing. But it's a slow process. It could be years of litigation and litigation. So it's not easy and it's extremely unpleasant, of course, and you like to hope that it doesn't get to that point.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
I think one of the ways we kind of build this in is I don't think we do enough emphasize the bioethical aspects of medicine enough. You know, everyone is so focused on academic freedom. And you've got these contrarian physicians who just spout absolute garbage or they become talking heads on Fox News in some cases.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
And yes, there's academic freedom, but we also have something called ethics and professionalism. And And somehow we have to build that better into our MD education or PhD education or residency education, that there is a responsibility here and you don't go off espousing contrarian views just for the sake of contrarian views.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
And because you've sort of gone down that rabbit hole, there has to be that kind of better sense of checks and balances, which right now we don't have.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
And the reason why we need to care is not just because we like throwing darts at people, but because it's affecting public health. I mean, those converging forces really accelerating during our time of COVID. We estimate in Texas of the 100,000 Texans who died of COVID, one of the worst affected states in the country, almost half died needlessly because they refused COVID immunizations.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
And thank you, Dr. Gupta, for all your good work.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
And especially, you know, starting in 2021, after vaccines became widely available with the start of the Delta wave, that's where we started seeing people die in droves. And guess where they died? They died in the same places where measles is now in those rural conservative areas of West Texas and
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
parts of East Texas, not so much in the cities of the Texas Triangle, in some cases, but mostly in those areas. And now we're seeing that spill over again to childhood immunizations with 1,000 measles cases, 90-plus hospitalizations, and two pediatric deaths, tragically.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
No. I mean, he has become sort of disinformation officer in chief. I was kind of hoping with the wind down of COVID, not that it's totally wound down by any means, but I would get a break from TV, but Mr. Kennedy seems determined to call me out of retirement. you know, it's because it's a zinger every few days, right? And I mean, and it's very, and it all is a very consistent theme.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
I mean, what does he say? He says, first of all, you know, the draw is the false equivalency between MMR vaccine and these phony baloney nutritional supplements that nobody needs. That's point one. Then he says the hospitalizations are due to Um, he says the hospitalizations are due to quarantine and isolation when those 90 plus kids who've been hospitalized are really, really sick.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
They have measles, pneumonia, measles, neurologic, uh, uh, involved involvement in, in, in severe dehydration or, and he keeps going. He says the MMR vaccine is a, as a leaky vaccine, whatever that means. And he, you know, says that the MMR immunization rates declines 4% per year. It's nonsense. There's one modeling study suggesting it may decline 0.04% per year. That's a hundredfold difference.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
And it keeps on going. He says the MMR vaccine is contaminated with aborted fetal material, whereas the two M's, the measles and the mumps,
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
attenuated virus is grown in chick embryo cells and their rubella component is grown in a cell line that's been propagated for over 60 years after it came from two aborted either one of two aborted fetuses but it's a cell line propagated in tissue culture for 60 years there's no aborted fetal material in it and The Vatican, the Pope have signed off on it.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
And then, you know, it keeps on going, this consistent theme of downplaying the severity of the illness the vaccine's designed to prevent and exaggerating the very, very rare side effects. And of course, it's happening when we've now had this measles epidemic going on since January. It's still going, you know, it'll...
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
Every time there's an update from the Texas Department of State Health Services, which we get on Tuesdays and Fridays, every time there's an increase, we know this epidemic is going to last at least another two weeks longer because that's roughly the incubation period.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
of of measles and now it's extended uh as as dr singh points out in in other parts of texas in the austin area in the san antonio area we don't know if that's going to take off and it's now moving up in in the great plains right it's going up into uh it's going up into oklahoma and to kansas and by the way it could meet in the middle for another trend that's happening
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
which the same forces are on plane in southern Alberta, which, you know, some people say is the Texas of Canada. There's a huge epidemic there into southern Manitoba and coming down. So the entire Great Plains region's affected. And it wasn't by accident.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
It was due to an organized, politically driven and financially driven disinformation campaign, financially driven by the health and wellness industry, politically driven by this libertarian movement. ideology that gets PAC money, political action committee money, and it's having deadly consequences now. So the worry, of course, is that this continues and two things happen.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
One, we lose our measles elimination status, which was defined more than 25 years ago by the CDC for global immunization that says if transmission goes out for a full year, we've lost our measles elimination status. And remember, measles is usually the tip of the iceberg on this stuff. Measles is often the first breakthrough infection we see because it's so highly transmissible.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
But we've got a six-fold rise in pertussis cases, whooping cough cases from 2023 to 2024. We've got polio in the wastewater in New York State. So So the concern is that our whole vaccine ecosystem is starting to unravel. And then you saw what the FDA did yesterday with blocking COVID vaccine use in kids and younger adults. And
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
And then the false claims that no childhood vaccines were tested through placebo controlled trial is absolute BS. I put up on my social media, just did a simple PubMed search, an informal PubMed search and, you know, printed out does dozens of. placebo-controlled trials for most of the childhood vaccines that I searched for. So I don't want to make this just about Mr. Kennedy.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
We'd have a big problem anyway, but now he's actively seeking to amplify this.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
I didn't know.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Meidas Health, Episode 7: Misinformation, MAHA, Measles, and the Future of Medicine (with Drs. Peter Hotez and Sapna Singh)
It's great to see you, Dr. Gupta.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/14/25
Here, play the clip. President Trump has had the best 50 days of any president in American history. And there's no sign inside here or outside there that that's going to slow down because we got a lot of good stuff.
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/7/25
President Trump, on Peter's question, are you going to make that policy, U.S. policy that the U.S. wouldn't defend NATO countries that don't pay?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
MeidasTouch Full Podcast - 3/7/25
On the auto tariffs that you were talking about, I know yesterday you spoke with the big three. Did you tell them that no more exemptions were on the way? And what was their reaction?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Holds Disaster Presser and Makes Everything Worse
I'm sure that they will see this in space. What is your message?
The MeidasTouch Podcast
Trump Holds Disaster Presser and Makes Everything Worse
Any changes to NATO where a NATO country gets attacked, but they're not paid enough dues so the United States doesn't defend them?