Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Opinion: Scientists have become sitting ducks. We need leaders to step up and defend us
A couple of years ago, Dr. Hotze spoke to my temple about vaccines and we learned that Dr. Hotze has been attacked by persons who hate science. Lately, Dr. Hotze has been attacked by that anti-vax idiot RFJ, Jr. and Joe Rogan. There is an organized effort to attack science, medicine and vaccines.
Link to tweet
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2023-09-22/antiscience-climate-change-covid-vaccines-antivax
Nearly a century ago, when global dominance in scientific research began shifting to the United States from Europe, our nation built an empire firmly grounded in the natural sciences. Americas research universities and institutes flourished and provided the discoveries leading to the Manhattan Project, Silicon Valleys tech industry, NASA and space exploration, vaccines to fight polio and other global infections, and new treatments for cancer, Alzheimers disease, diabetes and depression.....
I have devoted my life to vaccine science. During the pandemic, our team at the Texas Childrens Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine developed a low-cost COVID vaccine that was scaled for production in India and Indonesia, where almost 100 million doses were administered.
But here in the United States, thousands of Americans needlessly perished because they refused a COVID-19 immunization during our awful Delta wave in the summer and fall of 2021 and the BA.1 Omicron wave in the winter of 2022. Analyses by myself and colleagues have found that 200,000 unvaccinated Americans died during this period. Overwhelmingly, those deaths occurred in Republican strongholds, including 40,000 in my state of Texas. A closer examination reveals that the redder the county, the lower the immunization rates and the higher the death rates.....
Just before CPAC, another prominent Freedom Caucus member had disparaged vaccinators as medical brown shirts, meaning Nazis, and she later attacked me and other scientists by name on Steve Bannons podcast. Other caucus members regularly made unsupported and spectacular claims about the benefits of hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin as COVID treatments, while disparaging COVID-19 vaccinations.....
The U.S. must also recognize how anti-science rhetoric has emerged as a new lethal force and find mechanisms to halt its advance. Pseudoscience carved a path of destruction in the U.S.S.R. almost 100 years ago, and now it is happening again. Beyond the 200,000 deaths that have already occurred, as activism against COVID vaccines morphs into panic about all immunizations, we could see the return of catastrophic childhood infections such as measles or polio. The fact that polio genomes have been detected recently in the wastewaters of New York and London is an ominous warning. Over the last two decades we made steady progress in vaccinating the worlds children, with impressive declines in pediatric deaths. But those gains are fragile.
I have devoted my life to vaccine science. During the pandemic, our team at the Texas Childrens Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine developed a low-cost COVID vaccine that was scaled for production in India and Indonesia, where almost 100 million doses were administered.
But here in the United States, thousands of Americans needlessly perished because they refused a COVID-19 immunization during our awful Delta wave in the summer and fall of 2021 and the BA.1 Omicron wave in the winter of 2022. Analyses by myself and colleagues have found that 200,000 unvaccinated Americans died during this period. Overwhelmingly, those deaths occurred in Republican strongholds, including 40,000 in my state of Texas. A closer examination reveals that the redder the county, the lower the immunization rates and the higher the death rates.....
Just before CPAC, another prominent Freedom Caucus member had disparaged vaccinators as medical brown shirts, meaning Nazis, and she later attacked me and other scientists by name on Steve Bannons podcast. Other caucus members regularly made unsupported and spectacular claims about the benefits of hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin as COVID treatments, while disparaging COVID-19 vaccinations.....
The U.S. must also recognize how anti-science rhetoric has emerged as a new lethal force and find mechanisms to halt its advance. Pseudoscience carved a path of destruction in the U.S.S.R. almost 100 years ago, and now it is happening again. Beyond the 200,000 deaths that have already occurred, as activism against COVID vaccines morphs into panic about all immunizations, we could see the return of catastrophic childhood infections such as measles or polio. The fact that polio genomes have been detected recently in the wastewaters of New York and London is an ominous warning. Over the last two decades we made steady progress in vaccinating the worlds children, with impressive declines in pediatric deaths. But those gains are fragile.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
6 replies, 1010 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (9)
ReplyReply to this post
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Opinion: Scientists have become sitting ducks. We need leaders to step up and defend us (Original Post)
LetMyPeopleVote
Sep 2023
OP
The Dark Ages are always waiting in (appropriately) the shadows, waiting to return
Hekate
Sep 2023
#2
LetMyPeopleVote
(145,291 posts)1. For this thread
Hekate
(90,708 posts)2. The Dark Ages are always waiting in (appropriately) the shadows, waiting to return
mobeau69
(11,145 posts)3. Maybe the deaths of the Republicans in the red states can be looked at as part of the process of
natural selection.
LetMyPeopleVote
(145,291 posts)4. DeSantis and others are "falsely discrediting the... safety of vaccines
appalachiablue
(41,140 posts)5. Tx for posting, I think very highly of Peter Hotez and all his efforts.
BlueIn_W_Pa
(842 posts)6. I agree
While medical science has advanced at breakneck speed over the past century, research on most tropical diseases has languished, overlooked by many scientists and most funders. I hope that these grants will help spark a new era of accelerated research on neglected tropical diseases, said Dr. Peter Hotez, Principal Scientist of SVIs Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative and Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Diseases at George Washington University.
but he got wrapped up in public health policy and recommendations, and that doesn't always follow the science