Center for Vaccine Development co-director Dr. Peter Hotez said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart Reports” many Americans needlessly lose their lives because they did not get a COVID vaccine.
Anchor Peter Alexander said, “As we talk about vaccination right now, a new headline in The New York Times where they write, ‘COVID isn’t the only reason childhood vaccination rates are falling.’ It notes, among other things recent measles outbreak near Columbus, Ohio. In Rockland County, that’s just north of New York City. They saw polio cases go up just a matter of months ago. What concerns you most as it relates to those vaccination rates widely going down nationwide?”
Hotez said, “Here’s the concern, the anti-vaccine activism and movement that accelerated during this time of the COVID pandemic when so many Americans needlessly lost their lives because they refused to take a COVID vaccine, because they were victims of anti-vaccine aggression spread on some of the conservative news outlets, even from some elected leaders, now that’s spilling over to all vaccinations. We’re starting to see the spillover to childhood vaccinations. You saw this in Ohio. Parents didn’t get the measles vaccine. So I’m really worried that this is a new normal in the United States. Vaccine policy is usually set at the state level. Here in Texas, we’re seeing some onerous legislation being filed to make it harder and harder to vaccinate kids. This is going to be a new, tough battle for us, so making sure our kids get vaccinated.”
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