Dr. Peter Hotez highlights the deadly consequences of “the war of aggression on science and scientists coming out of Fox News”

Hotez: “This is death by anti-science”

Video file

Citation From the September 15, 2021, edition of MSNBC's Deadline: White House

DR. PETER HOTEZ (CO-DIRECTOR, TEXAS CHILDRENS HOSPITAL'S CENTER FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT): We're going to reach around 800,000 deaths by the end of the year, and so many of those deaths were not only from the SARS 2 coronavirus, it was defiance — defiance against vaccines, especially in the last few months. This is death by anti-science.

And — and a lot of this has been coming out of the nighttime Fox News anchors, this disinformation. And, you know, I'm often asked about Tucker Carlson or, you know, the others, Laura Ingraham, I don't know. And what I say is, look, I don't think this has anything to do with the individual Fox anchors. This is — this is coming from the top. This is a war of aggression against science and scientists coming out of Fox News as part of a larger authoritarian effort to discredit science and scientists. And I don't really know what the motivation is, but it's having a — just a devastating effect.

Just since May alone, Nicolle, 100,000 Americans who have lost their lives, almost all of them unvaccinated despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines. These are 100,000 lives that never — never had to be lost. And — and it goes beyond heartbreaking.