Peter Hotez

Dr. Peter Hotez, PhD is a Professor and researcher and death of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital.

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Hotez received a bachelor's degree from Yale University before attending the Weill Cornell Medical College where he received his Doctorate in Medicine. His doctoral training included vaccine development.

Dr. Peter Hotez, Appointed to National Institutes of Health Council of Councils April 26, 2011

WASHINGTON – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced yesterday that Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D., a scientist and researcher at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, has been appointed to serve as a member of the NIH Council of Councils.

Hotez is a Distinguished Research Professor at George Washington University, holds the Walter G. Ross Professorship, and serves as Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine at GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He is also president of Sabin Vaccine Institute, Editor-in-Chief of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, and president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Dr. Hotez said of the appointment, “I'm honored to be joining the esteemed National Institutes of Health Council of Councils and look forward to working with its members to advance public health initiatives, particularly as they relate to needed advances in vaccine research and development.”

The Council of Councils, which Congress established in 2006, is composed of 27 individuals who are selected from the NIH’s Institute and Center advisory councils and the Council of Public Representatives. Members of the council provide advice and expertise to the Director of the NIH on cutting edge, trans-NIH priorities and matters related to policies and activities of the NIH’s Division of Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (DPCPSI). The DPCPSI identifies emerging scientific opportunities, rising public health challenges, and scientific knowledge gaps that merit further research. 

Hotez is a leading expert on global health issues, particularly in the development of vaccines and in bringing international attention to neglected tropical diseases that confine many people around the world in a state of impoverishment. He has been awarded grants for his research by the NIH and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among other organizations. Hotez’s research papers and articles have been widely published, and he is the recipient of numerous honors for his work to help overcome diseases that affect the world’s poorest people.¹⁾

Hotez and colleagues are the recipients of millions of dollars in National Institutes of Health funding, most of which is for RBD recombinant protein-based SARS vaccine for biodefense.²⁾

2012 - SARS-CoV RNA Vaccine Development

RBD recombinant protein-based SARS vaccine for biodefense Hotez, Peter J. Bottazzi, Maria Elena Jiang, Shibo Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States

ABSTRACT

The 2002-2003 pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) posed an enormous threat to global public health and the social and economic stability. Its causative pathogen, the SARS-associated coronavirus (SARS-CoV), has been classified by NIAID as a Category C Priority Pathogen. SARS outbreaks remain a serious concern mainly due to possible zoonotic reintroduction of SARS-CoV into humans, accidental release from a laboratory or deliberate spreading of the virus by a bioterrorist attack.

Therefore, an effective and safe vaccine is urgently needed for preventing future SARS outbreaks and for biodefense preparedness. We have identified a highly promising lead candidate vaccine antigen, the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS- CoV ( S ) spike protein that contains the major neutralizing epitopes and can induce potent neutralizing antibody response and protection in animals against SARS-CoV infection.

To rapidly translate our initial proof of concept findings into a solid platform of clinical trials, a consortium of experts was put together consisting of scientists from Baylor College Medicine, the new home of Sabin Vaccine Institute's product development partnership (BCM-Sabin), the New York Blood Center (NYBC) and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), and in partnership with industrial partners and non-profit organizations.

The specific aims of this application are: (1) Expression, purification and pre-clinical characterization of the recombinant RBD (rRBD) protein as a vaccine candidate. The rRBD protein will be expressed in bacteria and yeast expression systems and one of these expression systems will be selected for subsequent studies based on yields, purity, stability, antigenicity, functionality, immunogenicity, and efficacy of the rRBD protein.

The immunization regimens will be optimized and the ability of rRBD protein to induce cross-neutralizing antibody response, cross-protection and long-term immune responses and protection will be assessed. (2) Process development, characterization, formulation and stability profiling. A scalable and reproducible fermentation process for rRBD (10 liter scale) and a purification process using chromatographic technologies will be developed.

Reproducibility will be confirmed. The specific product quality assays and vaccine formulations with alum and/or glucopyrranosyl lipid A (GLA), an innate adjuvant, will be developed. These assays and procedures will serve the basis for formal lot release and stability evaluation post-manufacturing. (3) Technology transfer, cGMP Manufacture, GLP toxicology and IND Preparation.

The cell bank production, production processes and the formulation technology for the rRBD-based SARS vaccine will be transferred to Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) pilot facility for 60-L scale GMP manufacture, formulation and fill and finish. The clinical lots will be released by Sabin- Texas and following a pre-IND meeting with the U.S. FDA, GLP toxicology will be initiated at Frontier Biosciences, a Maryland-based contractor.

Public Health Relevance

SARS-CoV is the first new human infectious disease agent of this century classified by NIAID as a Category C Priority Pathogen, and SARS outbreaks still remain a serious global concern mainly due to possible zoonotic reintroduction of SARS-CoV into humans or accidental release from a laboratory or deliberate spreading of the virus by a bioterrorist.

We have identified a highly promising lead candidate vaccine antigen, the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV spike (S) protein that can induce potent neutralizing antibody response and protection against SARS-CoV infection. Our objective is to develop a highly effective and safe recombinant RBD-based SARS vaccine that can be used in humans for prevention of future SARS outbreak and for biodefense preparedness.

Funding Agency - National Institutes of Health (NIH) - National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Research Project (R01) # 3R01AI098775-03S - Application #8852373

Project Start 2012-05-04 - Project End 2017-04-30 Budget Start 2014-06-16 - Budget End 2015-04-30 Support Year 3 - Fiscal Year 2014 - Total Cost $3,936 - Indirect Cost $1,434 ³⁾

ABSTRACT above is identical copy/paste in every subsequent funding submission. Summary ⁴⁾

Individual Awards

Fiscal Year - 2012 - Total Cost $1,501,840⁵⁾

Fiscal Year - 2013 - Total Cost $1,085,321⁶⁾

Fiscal Year - 2015 - Total Cost - $1,165,726⁷⁾

• Jul-Sep, 1997 Hotez et al in Emerging Infectious Diseases: Emerging and reemerging helminthiases and the public health of China
• Jan 24, 2019 Wang et al (Hotez) in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases: China’s shifting neglected parasitic infections in an era of economic reform, urbanization, disease control, and the Belt and Road Initiative

He is also University Professor at Baylor University, Fellow in Disease and Poverty at the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy, a Neoconservative think tank.

Senior Fellow at the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at Texas A&M University.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hotez was awared a million dollars per year in grant money from the NIAID to study receptor binding domain protein for use in a potential vaccine for COVID-19.⁸⁾

• Dec 30, 2021 Washington Post: New Coronavirus Vaccine Developed by a Team in Texas to be Deployed in India.

• Apr 27, 2021 in the the scientific journal Nature: COVID vaccines: time to confront anti-vax aggression
  • Suggests treating those whom he derides as anti-vaxxers should be targeted in ways similar to terrorists.
• Dec 14, 2020 on Twitter: “Absolutely no Americans are being forced to take a vaccine”
• Dec 14, 2020 on Twitter: Suggests that having helped with an ivermectin program for other diseases, he understands it (and is not biased?).

• Jan 29, 2021 Houston Chronical: With new COVID variants looming, Dr. Peter Hotez says Biden will have to step up his vaccine game
  • Suggests rush to approval of the AstraZeneca vaccine. But he has a conflict of interest:
    • “…And there’s also the recombinant protein vaccine our lab has developed at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital. In India they’re scaling that up to a billion doses. Nobody from the White House has approached us to say, “Hey, Peter, what can we do to bring that vaccine in.” There seem to be blinders: All they can see is getting the mRNA vaccines. I don’t quite know what’s driving that. We have to figure out a way to bring the other ones on board.”
• Dec 16, 2021 Dr. Hotez: Airline CEOs Objecting to Masks on Planes Have ‘Emotional Intelligence of a Doorknob’
  • Response by Dr. Paul Alexander.⁹⁾
• Dec 31, 2021 Hotez states that 200,000 Americans died from COVID-19 because they were unvaccinated, suggesting that antiscience attitudes are what kills people.

Peter Hotez Sees Aggression Everywhere But In The Mirror

Patrolling scientific discourse, Hotez has a knack for discovering “antiscience” in anyone who disagrees with him.

Substack Disinformation Chronicle - Paul D. Thacker -August 9, 2022

Sachs angered Hotez by shutting down a corrupt task force

Shortly after the outbreak, The Lancet put Sachs in charge of their COVID-19 Commission—experts gathered to find equitable, and lasting solutions to the pandemic. But last Fall, Sachs shut down the Commission’s task force that was looking into how the pandemic started. This group’s work was critical to stopping the next outbreak, but Sachs said that he was concerned about conflicts of interest and financial ties between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and one of the task force members—Peter Daszak, who runs the nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance.

Emails released through freedom of information requests caught Daszak orchestrating a February 2020 letter in The Lancet that warned against the “conspiracy theory” that the virus could have come from a Wuhan lab. Daszak’s letter did not disclose that he funds Shi Zhengli at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That same month, a group of virologists orchestrated another essay that also labeled a Wuhan lab accident a “conspiracy theory” in the journal “Emerging Microbes & Infections.” Emails find that the authors secretly passed the essay by the Wuhan Institute’s Shi Zhengli for editing.

Sachs disclosed last week that after appointing Daszak to run the task force, he realized that Daszak was not always telling the truth. After he asked Daszak to leave, Sachs said he was then attacked for being “antiscience” by other task force members~ ¹⁰⁾

Vaccine Industry Insider Peter Hotez Helped Fund Wuhan Gain-of-Function Study Childrens Health Defense by Emily Kopp August 10,2022

Dr. Peter Hotez, who received a $6.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for the development of a SARS vaccine that had the stated aim of responding to any “accidental release from a laboratory,” denounced plans to conduct hearings next year into the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 leaked from the Wuhan lab in China ¹¹⁾

Baylor Pediatrics Professor Who Is a Fauci Disciple Rips Medical Freedom Movement as ‘Anti-Science Aggression’ and ‘Major Killing Force’ by Susan Berry, PhD | Dec 17, 2022

A fervid follower of retiring Dr. Anthony Fauci said the global medical freedom movement should be called “anti-science aggression” because it has become a “major killing force … linked to far extremism on the far right” and has led to the deaths of 200,000 Americans “who needlessly lost their lives because they refused a COVID vaccine.”

In a political rant against those who have exposed the collusion between the federal government, the giants of technology, and the pharmaceutical industry in promoting the mRNA COVID shots, Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology at Baylor College of Medicine, posted a video message to Twitter that was retweeted by the World Health Organization (WHO).

• “Anti-vaccine activism, which I actually call anti-science aggression, has now become a major killing force globally.“
• – @PeterHotez, Professor and Dean @BCM_TropMed, on the devastating impact of #misinformation and disinformation. pic.twitter.com/ZluiMGJ2gX
• — World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) December 14, 2022
• “We have to recognize that anti-vaccine activism, which I actually call anti-science aggression, is now become a major killing force globally,” Hotez said, adding:
• During the COVID pandemic in the United States, 200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives because they refused a COVID vaccine, even after vaccines became widely available, and now the anti-vaccine activism is expanding across the world, even into low- and middle-income countries. It’s a killing force. Anti-science now kills more people than things like gun violence, global terrorism, nuclear proliferation and cyber- attacks. And now it’s become a political movement, in the US, it’s linked to far extremism on the far right, same in Germany. So this is a new face of anti-science aggression. And so we need political solutions to address this.
• Hotez’s video message is published as House Republicans are planning to demand testimony from Biden officials with expertise on the origins of COVID-19 in China and taxpayer funding for virus research in Wuhan.

• Remember these are the same House Freedom Caucus guys who discouraged Americans from taking Covid vaccines, resulting in the unnecessary deaths of 200,000 unvaccinated Americans. They don’t care about you or your family, and they don’t care if there’s a 4th pandemic.
• — Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD (@PeterHotez) December 16, 2022

Hotez echoes the very words of Fauci, who retires at the end of the month as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and as Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor.

In a recent interview with ABC News, Fauci said what concerns him the most about the state of science and medicine in America is “misinformation” and “disinformation.”

“Misinformation and disinformation is really hurting so many things, including people’s trust in science,” Fauci said. “It becomes very difficult to get people to fully appreciate the truth of what’s going on — which will ultimately impact how we respond, in this case, to a pandemic, like COVID-19.” ¹²⁾