Ep. 10 - Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism!

In an extremely topical episode, Dr. Peter Hotez, one of the world’s most preeminent experts on vaccines and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, joins host Lindsey Sneed to talk about the all too widespread and modern misconception that vaccines cause autism. While he’s saved hundreds of thousands of lives with the low-cost vaccines that he’s helped create over his illustrious career, Peter tells Lindsey that his recent work defending vaccines may ultimately prove to be as important as making the vaccines themselves.  

The father of a daughter with autism, Peter wrote the book “Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism” in 2018 – mixing his personal and professional life in a way that explains the causes of autism and how parents can be duped into simplistic fallacies in search of understanding. Modifying ‘tikkun olam,’ the Jewish concept of “repairing the world,” Peter says his own ‘science tikkun’ has become the meaningful framework of his life’s work – even when his life is being threatened by anti-vaxxers.  

Peter Hotez is a pediatrician, public health advocate, dean of the Baylor College School of Tropical Medicine and co-director of the Texas Center for Vaccine Development who’s appeared on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Fox News, the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the Joe Rogan Experience. A nine-time author, Peter is finishing up his next book due out in the fall – a collaboration with famed geophysicist Michael Mann entitled “Science Under Siege,” an examination of the overlap between the attacks on climate science and biomedicine.