Webinar — Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-science

While the world still grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, experts already warn of the risk of another novel pathogen creating the next pandemic. Globally, modern diseases and viruses have been spurred anew by war and conflict, shifting poverty, urbanization, climate change and a new, troubling anti-science/anti-vaccination outlook. At this event, Dr. Peter J. Hotez — an internationally recognized vaccine scientist at the Baylor College of Medicine and the Baker Institute fellow in disease and poverty — discussed his new book “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science.” The book highlights Hotez’s work as a science envoy for the U.S. Department of State during the Obama administration and the role of the Biden administration in soothing fraught international relations while preparing us for a safer, healthier future.

Hotez’s new book is for sale online at the Brazos Bookstore website, and event attendees were able to purchase a signed copy.

This event was co-sponsored by the Baker Institute Center for Health and Biosciences and The Immunization Partnership, with generous support from Community Health Choice, the Kavli Foundation and the National Science Foundation (Grant No. 2042854). Follow @BakerCHB on Twitter and join the conversation with #BakerHealth.

Agenda

2:00 p.m. — Presentation
2:30 p.m. — Q&A

Welcome Speaker

Kirstin Matthews, Ph.D.
Fellow in Science and Technology Policy, Baker Institute

Featured Speaker

Peter J. Hotez, M.D., Ph.D., is the Baker Institute fellow in disease and poverty. He is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also chief of the Section of Pediatric Tropical Medicine and the Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics. Hotez is an internationally recognized physician-scientist with expertise in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development. He leads the only product development partnership for developing new vaccines for hookworm, schistosomiasis and Chagas disease. He is the author of more than 400 original papers and the acclaimed book “Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases” (ASM Press). Hotez previously served as president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and as founding editor-in-chief of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2011, he was awarded the Abraham Horwitz Award for Excellence in Leadership in Inter-American Health by the Pan American Health Organization of the World Health Organization. In 2015, the White House and U.S. State Department selected Hotez as a United States science envoy. He obtained his undergraduate degree in molecular biophysics from Yale University in 1980 (Phi Beta Kappa), followed by a Ph.D. in biochemical parasitology from Rockefeller University in 1986 and an M.D. from Weil Cornell Medical College in 1987.