Dr Peter Hotez Links Anti-vaxxers with Anti-Semitism
I suspect that the weaponization of language to advance political agendas is probably as old as language itself. In my experience, many if not most human primates are quite socially competitive.
Many humans will weaponize almost anything available, whether it be sticks or stones, words, political agendas or academic policies to advance personal or group/tribal interests.
And many academics do seem to have a particular bent towards unusually aggressive political competitiveness, often associated with a jealous streak.
Dr. Peter Hotez has recently published an opinion piece in an obscure academic journal in which he constructs a false equivalence between right wing politics, “Antiscience”, vaccine and vax mandate hesitancy (“Antivaxxer”), and antisemitism.
According to this article, In his forthcoming book, The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science: How Health Freedom Propaganda Endangers the World (Johns Hopkins Press anticipated 2023), Hotez estimates that 200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives from COVID during the last half of 2021 alone, which he largely blames on propaganda from the far right.
‘Death By Anti-Science’: Dr. Peter Hotez On Vaccine Disinformation
Nicole:
The Pope today weighed in saying this, “humanity has a history of friendship with vaccines.” Does that help? I mean, can we still be helped by reassurances on the other side of the equation?Dr. Peter Hotez:
Oh, absolutely. And we need the clergy to step up in a big way. And so yes, absolutely. The Pope has a lot of influence and the Vatican has been pretty strong on vaccines and vaccinations in recent history, so that certainly helps. But we’ve got now so much of these anti-vaccine, anti-science sentiment coming out of the far right, and tragically, people are defining their allegiance. They’re defining their belonging to a group by defining vaccines. And now you’re starting to see this move up into Canada as well. So we’ve been exporting this anti-science aggression from the far right, and we’ve also seen similar health freedom phony language like that used now in the UK and in Europe. So we export our culture and we’re exporting this.
<Editors note: The Pope strongly endorsed the Pfizer mRNA “vaccine” at the time, despite knowing that there was a convent in Europe where a large number of nuns died after receiving that product.>
So who is Dr. Peter Hotez?
Of note is that COVID expert and early treatment advocate Dr. Peter McCullough also was once a full professor and Vice Chief of Internal Medicine at Baylor University Medical Center. I have often wondered whether Dr. Hotez played any role in the Baylor University railroading of Dr. McCullough.
How does Dr. Peter Hotez document and support these claims?
We have previously examined the claims of the “Center for Countering Digital Hate”, which is a recently created fringe astroturf organization with ties to the US Intelligence community, and which repeatedly has attempted to associate vaccine hesitancy and questioning the safety and effectiveness of the COVID genetic vaccines with anti-semitism.
The CCDH accusations are based on vague indirect associations and innuendo. By way of COI disclosure, the CCDH has referred to me as an “Extremist influencer” but provides no evidence to support that claim, or even bothers to define what they consider an “extremest influencer” to be.
Basically, this is just a pop up organization which gathers funding to smear, slander, and demean others. But the unexamined and unsupported defamatory claims of this organization was the basis for the Biden White House accusing US citizens of being the “disinformation dozen”.
You can find these essays here and here.
Dr. Hotez continues:
I am Jewish, I eventually experienced first-hand multiple anti-Semitic statements and threats online (see Figure 1 for examples). Two themes predominated. First there were overt threats or expressions of hatred because I was Jewish.
More frequently, however, there were hurtful attempts to accuse me (as well as my colleagues who vaccinate) of perpetrating crimes equivalent to those committed during the Holocaust.
Antivaxxers love their Nazi analogies, and I was ultimately compared to the infamous Dr Mengele because I am a scientist who conducts vaccine research, and because I “experimented” on my daughter by ensuring that she still received her recommended vaccinations despite an autism diagnosis.
Later emails appearing in my inbox openly expressed their desire to see me hang after some sort of new-age Nuremberg tribunal (Figure 1, top left). I was not alone—a pattern emerged in which Jewish physicians and scientists who conducted vaccine research or advocated for vaccinations were singled out and targeted with Nazi imagery
As I examine Figure 1, I do not see anti-semitic comments. Rather what I observe is typical internet trollery and hate, the likes of which I receive daily – including frequent accusations that I am a mass murderer for having made my 1988-1991 discoveries and inventions involving mRNA delivery and use for medical and vaccine purposes.
Although I spent quite a bit of time as a youth in the household of Aaron Roberts, who was both Jewish and my best friend, I am a gentile. But I still frequently receive this type of hate.
Dr. Hotez then goes on to make yet another false and unsubstantiated association mixing fact with his own speculations:
In parallel, antivaccine activists targeted insular Orthodox Jewish groups in New York and New Jersey, holding town hall meetings while distributing pamphlets with disinformation.
Vaccination rates declined and an outbreak of more than 300 measles cases ensued among these groups in Rockland County and elsewhere in New York in 2018–2019, requiring multiple hospitalizations and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions.
The extent of antivaccine activism among Haredi communities and how much it arose organically versus deliberate targeting by outside forces requires additional study.
This statement by Dr. Hotez is both paternalistic and ignorant.
The truth is that the orthodox Jewish communities of New York and New Jersey are perfectly capable of independently assessing the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, held multiple hearings and convened a Rabbinical court in November 2021 to make their own assessments of the safety and efficacy of the genetic COVID vaccines.
It turns out that they were among the first to detect the effects of these products on the female reproductive cycle (a critical topic in their communities), and made an accurate and correct assessment of this risk.
This was done at their behest – I participated in those hearings, and can assure all concerned that I was very actively challenged in multiple meetings with highly informed physicians and rabbis from those communities.
I recommend reading their conclusions, which have withstood the test of time and remain as valid today as they were then. If only the FDA and CDC had been as rigorous and open minded in their assessments during the fall of 2021.
Recordings of those hearings can be found here.
The resulting decision of the Rabbinical court can be found here.
This is taken from a long document. Read the rest here substack.com
Header image: NPR
Editor’s note: the editor’s notes reproduced here are Dr McCullough’s comments, not PSI’s
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Tom
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Go to hades, hotez.
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Bill
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I vividly recall being labeled a science denying anti-semite on reddit then being banned when I posted alternatives to Tamiflu and the similar pharma drugs.
It was interesting and memorable as the sheep… er posters, wanted so badly to vilify a young mother (pitch forks and torches were at the ready) that denied prescription care for child who later passed away due to complications from the flu. She had her reasons I’m sure.
As the story goes, the doctor refused to offer alternatives to their sponsored prescriptions to this young mother. No doubt they were getting kickbacks or otherwise compensated by the drug companies. But alas the doctor took no blame, just the mother and anyone that dared to have gone against the gaslighting that took place all over social media hive mind echo chambers in cases like that. It’s a shame. People die every day due to medical malpractice. Not from mistakes. From intentional malpractice- they choose to withhold life saving information and options, denying informed consent on almost all things.
I hate doctors. All of them. Perhaps surgeons (and dentists) deserve some respect. But I trust none of them. No one is worthy of the title “expert” in my opinion. That moniker can be bought and paid for too easily and no one can debunk that!
https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/when-antivirals-are-not-indicated-natural-products-can-help-alleviate-flu-symptoms
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Terry Shipman
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You go too far. There are good doctors out there who have risked their careers to tell the truth. In April of 2020 I nearly lost my life to a blood clot in my right leg. Subsequent to that I had a conversation with my doctor about the Covid jab. He noted that since I have elevated D-dimer levels I should NOT take the Covid jab. He and I were in complete agreement. His nurse was especially critical of the jab. She said, “I’m old school. I don’t believe in taking any medication that hasn’t gone through the normal years of testing.”
The trick is to find a good doctor that hasn’t been corrupted by Big Pharma. They are out there.
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Terry Shipman
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I meant to post this comment as a reply to Bill.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Terry,
I asked myself: Whom does Terry consider that doesn’t already know this? Only you, Terry, know the answer to my question.
Have a good day
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
I am replying to Terry’s comment which only appears in the recent comments. It was: “Hi Jerry, Read the last paragraph of Bill’s comment.” Bill had written. “I hate doctors.” So I understood (saw) why you wrote: “You go too far.”
The question I ask myself is: Do I really see simple, obvious things that do not seem obvious to others?
Have a good day
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Si
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No.
Len Winokur
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Obvious. What, like your frequent superciliousness, pomposity, and fight-picking? By which you hope to achieve just what?
Wish you a good day too.
Terry Shipman
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Hi Jerry,
Read the last paragraph of Bill’s comment.
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Charles HIgley
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Stupid is as Stupid does.
They are all looking for the 15 minutes of faux fame. Just like the PhD idiot who claims having a clean and organized pantry is racist and sexist. There is not correlation between being for real science and any kind of discrimination. He’s an idiot and does not understand real science, the dangers of almost all vaccines (except the skin polio vaccine), and antiSemitism. He is likely Jewish and wants to be more of a victim. My being for real science and being a biochemist, against vaccines, has nothing to do with me not liking him as a person trying to make trouble with stupid assertions.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Robert,
First, Bill,Terry, and Charles, good, thoughtful comments.
However, Robert you taught me a new word “primates” as you began: “I suspect that the weaponization of language to advance political agendas is probably as old as language itself. In my experience, many if not most human primates are quite socially competitive.“
I suspect I should have known the definition of “primates) but than again I certainly do not claim to be a “life scientist”.
primate | ˈprīmət, ˈprīˌmāt |
noun Zoology
a mammal of an order that includes the lemurs, bushbabies, tarsiers, marmosets, monkeys, apes, and humans. They are distinguished by having hands, feet that are similar to hands, and forward-facing eyes, and, with the. exception of humans, are typically agile tree-dwellers. (New Oxford American Dictionary)
I have to ask you Robert, since I read that humans are an exception to the agile tree-dwellers, why did you link humans to these agile tree-dwellers? For it seems to me that what you did is similar to Hotez [Linking] Anti-Vaxxers With Anti-Semitism. Wouldn’t your opening statement been just as valid if you had omitted “primates”?
Have a good day
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Len Winokur
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There is nothing in Robert’s opening statement that suggests that he considers humans to be tree-dwelling. Fair comment of yours that his use of the word ‘primate’ was superfluous, but by the New Oxford American Dictionary definition of ‘primate’ that you yourself quote for us, for him to refer to humans as primates was not incorrect. Might he have included the word ‘primate’ so as to weaponise its usage? His inclusion of it certainly seems to have ruffled your proverbial feathers – and those of many others among us.
Wish you a good day too.
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Len Winokur
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Meant to type at the end “- and possibly those of many others among us”.
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Saeed Qureshi
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@ “… as part of a larger authoritarian effort to discredit science and scientists…”
Here science and scientists imply “medical science” and “medical scientists,” respectively. However, unfortunately, there are no such things as “medical science” and “medical scientists.” Moreover, these self-given designations are without credentials as these experts never studied and practiced science. The underlying science for medicine and diagnosis is chemical based, more appropriately studied by chemistry, the actual science. Therefore, by ignoring the actual science, these experts, in fact, practice and promote anti-science.
For example, science will never say that the virus has been isolated when there is nothing to show. Likewise, scientists will never say vaccines are safe and effective when they have never been tested against the virus. Many more examples are available to negate their claim as “science has been followed.”
It is time for genuine soul-searching rather than blaming others with real concerns about the claims and practice of medicines (chemicals).
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Antonio
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Virus?
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VOWG
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I think Hotez is quite insane and very dangerous.
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Phillis Stein
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And here’s Peter Hotez in Nature magazine:
“The United Nations and the highest levels of governments must take direct, even confrontational, approaches with Russia, and move to dismantle anti-vaccine groups in the United States. Efforts must expand into the realm of cybersecurity, law enforcement, public education and international relations. A high-level inter-agency task force reporting to the UN secretary-general could assess the full impact of anti-vaccine aggression, and propose tough, balanced measures. The task force should include experts who have tackled complex global threats such as terrorism, cyber attacks and nuclear armament, because anti-science is now approaching similar levels of peril. It is becoming increasingly clear that advancing immunization requires a counter-offensive.”
“Anti-vaccine activism, which I call anti-science aggression, has now become a major killing force globally.”
~ Peter Hotez, Professor and Dean, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) National School of Tropical Medicine via WHO Twitter account tweeted 14 December, 2022
I should think that this article plus the 2 quotes above tell us that this man’s job is clearly to push the whole “anti-science” argument on behalf of the DS of which he is likely a part. Anything that doesn’t agree with the current agenda is anti-……….something. This is termed “polarization of the argument” and is a well worn manipulation tactic foisted on us by the light-deficient ones. When their threats and other pronouncements don’t convince people, then they revert to “playing the victim” tactics.
I would recommend that people listen to exactly NOTHING that this light-deficient one says.
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