Peter Jay Hotez (born May 5, 1958)[1] is an American scientist, pediatrician, and advocate in the fields of global health, vaccinology, and neglected tropical disease control. He serves as founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also Director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics.[2][3] He also serves as a University Professor of Biology at Baylor University.
Hotez served previously as president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene[4] and is a founding Editor-in-Chief of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.[5] He is also the co-director of Parasites Without Borders, a global nonprofit organization with a focus on those suffering from parasitic diseases in subtropical environments.[6]
Hotez was born in Hartford, Connecticut to a Jewish family.[1] His father Edward J. Hotez was a World War II veteran in the United States Navy.[7][8]
Growing up in West Hartford, Hotez graduated from Hall High School.[1] In 1980, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in molecular biophysics and biochemistry magna cum laude (Phi Beta Kappa) from Yale University, in 1986 a Doctor of Philosophy from Rockefeller University, and in 1987 a Doctor of Medicine from Weill Cornell Medical College.[9] His doctoral dissertation and postdoctoral research were in hookworm molecular pathogenesis and vaccine development.[10]
Hotez was awarded postdoctoral positions in molecular parasitology and pediatric infectious diseases at Yale University School of Medicine, where he subsequently became an assistant professor in 1992 and an associate professor in 1995. His early research focused on the pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms of human hookworm infection that eventually led to his patented vaccine now in clinical trials,[11][12] as well as a vaccine against schistosomiasis, also in clinical trials,[13] either of which could be the first successful vaccine for humans to protect against a multi-cellular parasite.[14]
From 2000 to 2011, Hotez served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Tropical Medicine (renamed in 2005 as the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine) at the George Washington University.[15]
Following the World Health Organization's (WHO) Millennium Development Goals in 2000, Hotez, along with Drs. Alan Fenwick and David Molyneux, led a global effort to rename diseases then being termed simply "other diseases," as "neglected tropical diseases" (NTDs), and promoting the use of therapeutic/preventive chemotherapy through a combination of drugs called the "rapid-impact package."[16] Hotez has advocated for increased efforts to control NTDs since 2005 through publications and speaking engagements, helping to gain increased awareness resulting in a decrease of prevalence and disease burden in many areas.[17]
Hotez led the Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington, D.C., as well as efforts to establish PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, the first online open access medical journal focused exclusively on neglected tropical diseases.[18]
In addition to continuing work on vaccines already in clinical trials for hookworm as of 2010 [11] and schistosomiasis,[13] Hotez led a team of researchers developing vaccines against other diseases including leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, SARS, and MERS,[19] As of 2020, he was also working in development of a Coronavirus vaccine.[20] With Maria Elena Bottazzi, he led the team that designed COVID-19 vaccine named Corbevax.[21]
Hotez has used his public profile on Twitter and other social media platforms to combat misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and about vaccines. He has appeared as an invited expert in a number of cable news and radio shows.[22][23][24] In an interview with the American Medical Association, Hotez noted that communicating clear messages about the ongoing pandemic is of vital importance in an environment that is rife with confusing and misleading messages. "We've been hearing either the sky was falling or there was no problem... the reality is more nuanced than that and that requires some explanation based on scientific principles."[25]
Hotez has warned that contrary to popular belief, more young adults than expected would be hospitalized due to the outbreak of COVID-19: "The message is that we've been trying to appeal to younger adults and have them shelter away and do the social distancing and explaining why they're at risk for transmitting the virus to vulnerable populations."[26] In 2020 he warned against optimistic COVID-19 vaccine timelines, arguing that rushing could cause problems, "potentially mak[ing] individuals worse and threaten[ing] vaccine development in the U.S."[27] On August 7, 2020, he said in a television interview that the US can expect to be affected by COVID-19 for "years and years" even after Americans are vaccinated. In that interview, he also blamed the federal government for not taking action to contain the spread of the virus.[28]
Like many other public health experts who used social media during the pandemic, Hotez was the target of online harassment.[29] He had already experienced significant prior harassment because of his vaccine advocacy, including at his lectures, receiving online threats, and being blamed for his daughter's autism.[30] In June 2023, he tweeted his concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sharing misinformation about vaccines on Joe Rogan's podcast. Rogan, Kennedy, and Twitter owner Elon Musk asked Hotez to participate in a debate on the podcast. Upon declining the invitation, Hotez was harassed by their fans, with anti-vaccine activist Alex Rosen confronting him at his home.[29][31][32] At around the same time, he had been the subject of attacks by followers of Steve Bannon and Tucker Carlson who had separately denigrated him.[33] In October 2023, he was given the inaugural Anthony Fauci Courage in Leadership Award from the Infectious Diseases Society of America for his efforts in combating anti-science.[34]
Hotez is the parent of an autistic daughter. In his 2018 book Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism: My Journey As a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad he declared that vaccines did not cause his daughter´s autism.
Selected awards and memberships include:
In 2008, he was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.[46] He is an ambassador of the Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (FAAP), a member of the World Health Organization Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee for WHO TDR (Special Programme on Tropical Diseases Research),[47] and in 2011, Hotez was appointed as a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Council of Councils.[48] He is a member of the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.[49]
He is a co-editor of Krugman's Infectious Diseases of Children, 11th Edition,[50] and co-editor of Manson's Tropical Diseases, 23rd Edition and Feigin and Cherry's Textbook of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, 7th Edition.
He is the co-author of the reference work called Parasitic Diseases, 5th Edition.[51]