Tag: Hotez

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Dr. Peter Hotez applauds CDC’s endorsement of vaccines for pregnant ladies in gentle of harmful antivaccine rhetoric

Dr. Peter Hotez applauds CDC's endorsement of vaccines for pregnant women in light of dangerous antivaccine rhetoric

Dr. Peter Hotez told CNBC he was glad the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their guidelines and urged pregnant women to get vaccinated, especially given the widespread misinformation campaigns targeting pregnant women.

“Unfortunately, the bad guys, the anti-vaccine groups, have published a lot of fake information claiming that Covid-19 vaccines can cause infertility,” said Hotez, co-director of the vaccine development center at Texas Children’s Hospital.

“They copied and pasted their fake news about the HPV vaccine for cervical cancer and other cancers, which was also wrong, that they said caused infertility, and they just copied / pasted it right on Covid-19 vaccines . There was never any truth to it. “

The CDC’s recommendation comes because the highly transmissible Delta variant is causing a further increase in Covid-19 infections and the daily cases nationwide are rising over 100,000. According to CDC statistics, by July 31, around 23% of pregnant women had received at least one dose of the Covid vaccine.

Hotez underlined in an interview on Wednesday evening in “The News with Shepard Smith” how dangerous it is for some pregnant women to become infected with Covid-19.

“We have seen many and many pregnant women over the past year and a half who got very sick, went to the pediatric intensive care unit, lost their baby, lost their own life to Covid-19, and this is the really scary piece” “, said Hotez. “Pregnant women have not coped well with this virus, and that is the big message.”

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Third Covid shot could also be approach round masking, says Dr. Peter Hotez

Third Covid shot may be way around masking, says Dr. Peter Hotez

Dr. Peter Hotez told CNBC that while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s new Covid masking guidelines are “absolutely” necessary to battle the delta variant and surging cases, there might be an alternative to wearing masks indoors again. 

“There is potentially a way to get around it, and it may be that third immunization,” said Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital.

The vaccines are currently proving to hold up against symptomatic illness and against serious illness, ICU admissions and hospitalizations. Hotez, however, noted that the vaccines “are not holding up as well” when it comes to stopping asymptomatic transmission, because the delta variant is so highly contagious. 

New data shows that people infected with the delta strain can carry up to 1,000 times more virus in their nasal passages than those infected with the original strain.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday recent studies show that those vaccinated individuals who do become infected with Covid have just as much viral load as the unvaccinated, making it possible for them to spread the virus to others.

Hotez explained to “The News with Shepard Smith” that the booster shot could increase the virus- neutralizing antibodies in people who have been vaccinated, and that is important because it could help stop asymptomatic transmission. 

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Political ideology is actual cause folks stay unvaccinated, says Dr. Peter Hotez

Pfizer and BioNTech begin the process of seeking full U.S. approval for their Covid vaccine

Dr. Peter Hotez argued that the real reason some Americans don’t get vaccinated is because of their political ideology.

“They unfortunately tie their political loyalty to the political right. And we see this in the bottom ten states in terms of vaccination rates,” which is half the coverage in the top ten states, said Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital.

The ten states with the highest rate of residents receiving at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine also voted for President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Polls show that more than 40% of Republicans don’t plan to be vaccinated.

Hotez told CNBC’s The News with Shepard Smith that regional summer flare-ups in states with lower vaccination rates could lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to urge Americans to wear masks again.

The CDC on Thursday relaxed mask guidelines for the US, saying that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a face mask or stay 6 feet away from others in most environments, whether outdoors or indoors.

The updated guidelines have received widespread criticism, but Hotez said this was because the new guidelines arrived earlier than expected.

“I was expecting it sometime in June, so it’s a couple of weeks early,” said Hoetz. “I think it will be fine. But I think the shops, the corporations and the universities need a little time to get information and have internal discussions.”

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Convincing skittish mother and father to vaccinate their kids key to curbing Covid, says Dr. Hotez

Convincing skittish parents to vaccinate their children key to curbing Covid, says Dr. Hotez

To curb the spread of Covid-19 in the future, U.S. officials must convince skeptical parents to vaccinate their children, said Dr. Peter Hotez on Wednesday.

“There will have to be a lot of public communication and a lot of advocacy that needs to be done because parents will be a little skeptical about … a brand new mRNA technology for their children,” said Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development Texas Children’s Hospital said CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith”.

Hotez’s comments came after Pfizer announced earlier in the day that its vaccine is 100% effective in children ages 12-15. Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, said the company will soon submit the new data to the Food and Drug Administration and other regulators. He added Pfizer would request a change to its emergency permit to include anyone 12 and older.

“We see adolescents going to pediatric intensive care units, they get sick, especially those with underlying risk factors,” said Hotez. “If we really want to stop virus transmission, 80 to 85% of the population will have to be vaccinated now that we have variant B.1.1.7, which is so highly transmissible, and I think we could do that.” that by involving young people. “

Hotez said he thinks the US could “vaccinate maybe 75% of adults” by the summer but warned that “we are in the running with this B.1.1.7 variant,” leading to higher mortality and hospitalization rates .

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Dr. Peter Hotez backs Fauci in his showdown with Sen. Paul over masks

Dr. Peter Hotez backs Fauci in his showdown with Sen. Paul over masks

Dr. Peter Hotez stands after a showdown between Republican Senator Rand Paul and Dr. Anthony Fauci on Capitol Hill for masks on the side of one of the best doctors in the country.

“Dr. Fauci is absolutely right, Senator Paul is absolutely wrong, and it has been for the past 14 months,” said Hotez.

Paul claimed that after their recovery or vaccination, people are not at risk for Covid and therefore do not need to wear masks. The Kentucky Senator also claimed that Fauci was just sporting two masks.

The White House chief medical officer strongly opposed Paul’s comments Thursday during a Senate hearing examining the country’s efforts to respond to the coronavirus.

“I can only say that masks are no theater,” said Fauci. “I totally disagree with you.”

In a Thursday night interview on The News with Shepard Smith, Hotez noted that “masks may need to be removed” but that it is too early and “we are still trying to understand the full performance characteristics of the vaccines”.

“We are only now getting a clue that it is interrupting the asymptomatic transmission,” said Hotez.

The masks debate comes from the fact that almost half of the country has seen an increase in Covid cases. 23 states reported an average of seven days increase in cases last week, according to Johns Hopkins. Half a dozen states are also seeing a higher trend in hospital stays, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, told host Shepard Smith that the spikes could be the result of highly transmissible new variants.

“The key now is to vaccinate before the variants as soon as possible,” said Hotez.

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New Covid variants are going to ‘hit us fairly onerous,’ says Dr. Peter Hotez

South Carolina detects first-known U.S. case

Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, says the US is “facing a tough journey” as new variants of Covid spread across the country.

“Because they are more transmissible, it means more Americans will be infected. Although the number of new cases has decreased slightly … the expectation now is that it will rise again because of these new variants.” “Hotez said in an interview on Thursday evening of” The News with Shepard Smith. “” More people will become infected, overwhelm hospital systems again, and possibly the death rate will rise, both from a combination of more new cases in general and one. ” slightly higher mortality rate, solely due to the variant by the type of variant. “

Health officials in South Carolina have confirmed two cases of the dangerous, highly communicable South African tribe of Covid. Officials said the cases appear unrelated and unrelated to a recent trip. Dr. Zeke Emanuel, a member of President Joe Biden’s Covid Advisory Board, said that is why the South African exposure is so worrying.

“This is worrying because these two people have no evidence of travel, and it means that the South African variant, which is more worrying than even the British variant, is about and in the community,” said Emanuel.

Hotez told host Shep Smith that the new strains were even more problematic because “we weren’t looking”.

“We’ve done so poorly on genome sequencing that we’re picking up these British, South African, and Brazilian variants. So we know they’re in South Carolina, but they could be elsewhere,” said the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine on Baylor College of Medicine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that the British variant, also known as B117, could dominate the US by spring. Hotez said the key to protecting the population is to vaccinate people faster.

“The bottom line is that we need to find a way to vaccinate the American people faster than current projections,” Hotez said. “First, to reduce hospital stays and deaths, but also to stay one step ahead of these variants. If we can vaccinate three-quarters of the American population, we could potentially interrupt transmission and prevent some of these new variants from becoming dominant.”