Fighting for Science
The Brian Lehrer Show
WNYC
4.6 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 September 2023
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From the frontlines of the fight against vaccine, and other scientific, misinformation, Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, codirector of the Texas Children's Center for Vaccine Development, and professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine and the author of The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science: A Scientist's Warning (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023), offers a framework for separating the politics from the science.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the Brian Larosho on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. I'm joined now by the |
| 0:15.8 | quote infamous Dr. Peter Hotez, at least that's what Fox News host Laura Ingram calls him |
| 0:21.9 | infamous for insisting vaccines are safe and saves lives. He's become a right wing target |
| 0:28.9 | as anti-science has become part of the anti-democratic party agenda and got even more famous |
| 0:35.4 | after Joe Rogan tried to get him to debate RFK Jr. on his podcast. We'll ask him about |
| 0:40.9 | that. Dr. Hotez is an MD PhD, the founding dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine, |
| 0:48.4 | the co-director of the Texas Children's Center for Vaccine Development and Professor of Pediatrics |
| 0:54.1 | and Molecular Virology and Microbiology, all at the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, |
| 1:00.3 | and he's got a new book, The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science, A Scientist's Warning. Dr. Hotez, |
| 1:08.1 | good to have you back on the show. Welcome back to WNYC. Oh, thanks so much. You forgot the most |
| 1:12.8 | important part of the introduction, which is a did my MD and PhD in New York City at Rockefeller |
| 1:18.1 | in Cornell a hundred years ago. All right. So, you know, you're way around and very |
| 1:23.0 | least. Yeah, exactly. What's the difference between anti-science and descent among scientists |
| 1:29.1 | with a minority view? Well, you know, in the book, I, you know, people ask me that quite a bit |
| 1:34.1 | actually, and in the book, I even go so far as to define anti-science, so we know what we're talking |
| 1:40.6 | about because otherwise people make up what I'm saying. I mean, I'm seeing stuff on the, you know, |
| 1:45.4 | from the far right on the, on Twitter and other social media platforms, just making up things |
| 1:52.3 | that I've never said. So, I define anti-science as the rejection of mainstream scientific views. |
| 1:58.2 | I'm reading from the book, actually. Anti-science is the rejection of mainstream scientific views |
| 2:02.9 | and methods or their replacement with unproven or deliberately misleading theories. |
| 2:08.3 | And this is an important part, often for nefarious and political gains. It targets prominent |
| 2:13.3 | scientists and attempts to discredit them. And I think anti-vax groups are as old as vaccines, |
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