A vaccine scientist says anti-vaccine activists “stalked” him at his home Sunday after Joe Rogan and others, including Twitter owner Elon Musk, challenged the scientist to debate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine proponent and Democratic presidential candidate, over vaccine misinformation.

Peter Hotez, a Houston-based scientist and pediatrician in global health, vaccinology and neglected tropical disease control, spent much of the pandemic debunking misinformation spread online about covid-19 and the vaccines targeting the coronavirus. He was also part of a Nobel Prize-nominated team of scientists who created an affordable, easy-to-make coronavirus vaccine.

Hotez criticized Rogan over the weekend as “awful” for hosting Kennedy, one of the country’s leading anti-vaccine advocates who has peddled false claims linking vaccines to autism, on Rogan’s wildly popular podcast last week. In response, Rogan publicly challenged the vaccine scientist to debate Kennedy, in a tweet Saturday that’s now been viewed more than 50 million times. Rogan said he’d give $100,000 to the charity of Hotez’s choice “if you’re willing to debate him on my show with no time limit.” Then, billionaires claimed they’d give more money and vaccine skeptics piled on. Among them was Musk, who tweeted that Hotez was “afraid of a public debate, because he knows he’s wrong.”.....

In January 2022, a coalition of hundreds of doctors and public health experts called out Spotify for allowing Rogan to spread “false and societally harmful assertions” about covid-19 and vaccination. Rogan responded by vowing to have mainstream experts give their viewpoints after guests espousing more fringe opinions, saying he would “do my best to make sure that I’ve researched these topics — the controversial ones in particular — and have all the pertinent facts at hand before I discuss them.”....

The situation, however, worsened Sunday when he and his wife returned from the bakery. Hotez said he quickly realized what was going on when a right-wing provocateur approached him with his camera phone and asked him about “vaccine injuries on children.” The vaccine scientist is seen on video saying the man is harassing him before locking the front gate to his home. Another woman is heard yelling in the background at Hotez.

Way to talk in generalities Joe. Not saying there aren't a lot of fucked up things about pharma. That's why we created http://Costplusdrugs.com. But to ignore that the same industry has saved who knows how many lives is bullshit and you know it.
It's also disrespectful to all the doctors, researchers and medical professionals that dedicate their lives to saving lives, like Dr Hotez and the 800k plus doctors in the country that believe vaccines save lives

You arent trying to find the ground truth on vaccines. If you were you would bring on someone who focused on debating the issue. Like @thereal_truther.

Trying to bully Dr Hotez is ridiculous. You have producers that will prepare you and you get to control the conversation.

@RobertKennedyJr also has a staff ready to prepare him, and these topics are what he talks about in every speech.

You both do this on a daily basis Dr Hotez works every day to try to find ways to help people.

Joe , you and @elonmusk's @twitter are the mainstream online media and your platforms have become everything supposedly wrong with MSM. You are driven by self interest. Just like the MSM always has been accused of.
And you both have earned that right. You busted your asses to be great at what you do and earned all you have accomplished.
But don't lie to yourselves and all of us and tell us you are different. You aren't.