Hated By Anti-Vaxxers & His Public Fallout w/ Joe Rogan | Dr. Peter Hotez
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What happened between Dr. Hotez and Joe Rogan?
You have now a rough relationship with Joe Rogan. It started off positive.
How are you, sir? How are you? Good to see you again. I'm thrilled to be here.
How has misinformation evolved during the pandemic?
He was inviting you on as an expert to talk about what's going on in the early days of the pandemic. How did that change?
I criticize him when he puts out vaccine disinformation and ask him not to do that. If you're like 21 years old and you say to me, should I get vaccinated? I go, no. I was writing to him. I said, Joe, have me on because what you're doing is dangerous. People are now making decisions based on what they're hearing.
How did he respond to your messages?
There was no response. I didn't hear from him in two years until he taunted me to debate RFK Jr., There were a few reasons why I wasn't going to debate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I didn't want to send the message that science is done by a debate with crackpots. And whoever says more clever things in a debate, that's how science gets done. I thought that would be very dangerous.
What is Dr. Hotez's experience with online abuse?
You faced a lot of abuse during that time. Harassment, anger, vitriol from the general public. What was that like?
I got stalked at my home by an anti-vaxxer, a couple of anti-vaxxers. It was very dark, very quickly.
Today, I sit down with Dr. Peter Hotez, pediatrician, scientist, co-inventor of a $3 patent-free COVID vaccine, and the researcher anti-vaxxers love to target. In this episode, we peel back the curtain on how he was able to create a low-cost vaccine with the help of Tito's Vodka. And without the help of Big Pharma, we get into the details between his public clash with Joe Rogan and what really happened when RFK Jr. tried to lure Hotez into a debate cage match with Elon watching for $100,000. Sounds like I'm making all this up, but I'm not. If you ever wondered how to fight misinformation without losing your mind or your funding, Dr. Hotez brings receipts, a few spicy stories, and a blueprint for keeping public health alive in 2025 and beyond. Without further ado, please welcome Dr. Peter Hotez to the Checkup Podcast. I'm excited to speak. I've seen your work throughout all of social media, all the major cable stations.
You've been a prominent voice in debunking a lot of misinformation, both online, offline, and on television. What are some of the lessons you've learned over these last few years as to how complicated it is to battle misinformation?
Well, Mike, it's gotten more complicated because the anti-vaccine movement has grown in sophistication. They've grown in political power, in money, in infrastructure. And the kinds of pieces of disinformation that they're putting out have become more more sophisticated also. I mean, not really, but it requires people with more technical knowledge than the past to debunk it. So for instance, saying Bill Gates is sticking microchips into your vaccine, most general physicians could debunk that. But You know, when the Florida Surgeon General, Latipo, says mRNA vaccines are causing turbo cancers because they're inserting nucleic acid into our genome, you have to think about that for a minute. And you have to say, wait a minute, there's no such thing as a turbo cancer.
It's a made-up term. Right. mRNA lipid nanoparticles delivered the nucleic acid package past the cell membrane into the cytoplasm, but they don't get into the nucleus. For that, you need electroporation. That's why we have no DNA vaccines. And even if they did, we have proteins of our innate immune system that prevent incorporation of foreign nucleic acid into our genome. Otherwise, every time we eat a hamburger, you'd have cow DNA in our genome. Um, but, but I have an MD and a PhD and, and, and, and, and so that's not so hard for me, but for a general physician, you know, they're like, Oh gee, I never heard that. And they need time to look it up. So it's, it's become, it's, it's becoming tougher and tougher.
Yeah. What, um, strategies have you used both successfully and unsuccessfully in helping people better understand what's true versus what's not?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What happened between Dr. Hotez and Joe Rogan?
0:00–0:08
2
How has misinformation evolved during the pandemic?
0:08–1:00
3
What is Dr. Hotez's experience with online abuse?
1:00–16:59
4
How did Tito's Vodka support vaccine development?
16:59–1:02:50
5
What are the dangers of the measles virus?
1:02:50–1:03:55
6
What strategies does Dr. Hotez use to combat misinformation?
1:03:55–1:06:46
7
What are the implications of vaccine misinformation in society?
1:06:46
8
Why did Dr. Hotez refuse to debate RFK Jr.?
30:13–1:38:22
Speakers
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