The last five years have seen a decline in the public health control of neglected and vaccine preventable diseases due to modern 21st century forces of war, political collapse, urbanization, climate change, and a rise in anti-science. In many ways COVID-19 was a culminating event in this decline rather than something entirely new. There is an urgent need to establish a new framework for vaccine diplomacy between nations in order to combat the forces of vaccinationalism and ant-science.
Bio
Peter J. Hotez, M.D., Ph.D. is Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine where he is also the Co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics. He is also University Professor at Baylor University, Fellow in Disease and Poverty at the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Senior Fellow at the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at Texas A&M University, Faculty Fellow with the Hagler Institute for Advanced Studies at Texas A&M University, and Health Policy Scholar in the Baylor Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy.
