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Medical Freedom & Vaccine Choice Just “Phony Nonsense”?

a little bottled up hate

In an opinion piece in the Houston Chronicle titled “Why I’m standing up to the anti-vaccine nonsense,” pediatrician and vaccine developer Peter Hotez, MD, PhD sought to explain his reasoning for declaring himself the primary antagonist of parents defending the moral and legal right to make informed, voluntary medical care decisions, including vaccine decisions, for their minor children.

Dr. Hotez, who is the director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development in Houston, wrote about why he feels justified in attacking parents, including those with vaccine injured children, who are educated about vaccine risks and failures and advocate for protection of the ethical principle of informed consent. He said, “As both a vaccine pediatrician-scientist and autism dad, I knew there was probably no one more qualified to stand up to the anti-vaccine lobby and refute their false assertions.”1 

Hotez implied that he is a reluctant warrior, though. He said, “I knew the stakes might be high. Many individuals linked to anti-vaccine groups are notorious cyberbullies and stalkers. Did I really want to run myself and family through this gantlet?”1 Could this be the same Peter Hotez who has alleged that parents of vaccine injured children “hate their families and hate their children” because presumably they dare to speak out and describe the devastating deterioration in health their children suffered after vaccination?2 3

Hotez throws around the word “hate” like he owns it. The word “hate” is defined in the dictionary as “to feel extreme enmity toward: to regard with active hostility” and “to have a strong aversion to: find very distasteful.”4

Could this be the same Hotez who said people who believe in medical freedom and vaccine choice should be “snuffed out?”5 6

Snuff: another strong word which goes further than hate. The word “snuff” is defined in the dictionary as “to make extinct: put an end to” and “kill, execute.”7

This doctor is very angry and seems to be fixated on feelings of hate and killing, especially when people don’t agree with him. Think about the kind of strategy this doctor is pursuing, one that appears almost entirely focused on dehumanizing individuals who do not agree 100 percent with him about vaccination, health and autonomy.

Like those who have been public spokespersons for forced vaccination policies and laws before him, Dr. Hotez is determined to divide Americans into two camps: people who are right and worthy of being valued and those who are wrong and not worthy of being valued. It looks like Dr. Hotez wants to convince the public that those who side with his view that vaccines are good and everyone must be required to get vaccinated belong in the first camp, while those, who believe that vaccines are not good for everyone and no person should be forced to take a medical risk without voluntary informed consent, belong in the second camp.

In other words, Hotez is setting up people who disagree with him to be viewed as wrong, unworthy and less than human—thus creating a “psychological loophole” that can justify harming or even killing them.8 9

In an article in Vox titled “The dark psychology of dehumanization, explained”, Brian Resnick wrote:

At Stanford, Albert Bandura, showed that when participants overhear an experimenter call another study subject “an animal,” they’re more likely to give that subject a painful shock. If you think of murder and torture as universally taboo, then dehumanization of the “other” is a psychological loophole that can justify them.8

This kind of language is different from the kind of bullying or stalking that Hotez whines about. At its most annoying and pathetic, Hotez’s description of vaccine safety and informed consent advocates as “hate groups” and the need for “snuffing out” those groups is reminiscent of the “schoolyard bully who engages in name calling when he can’t come up with anything intelligent to say.”3

At its near-worst, Hotez’s language is defamatory and, as noted by informed consent advocate Barbara Loe Fisher of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), is…

“systematically fomenting fear, hatred and prejudice against any parent or physician who talks about the reality of vaccine injuries and deaths and defends the informed consent principle, which has been the ethical standard for the ethical practice of medicine since World War II.”3

Informed consent? Dr. Hotez clearly finds the idea bothersome and repugnant, and he is not embarrassed to admit it. In his article, Hotez referred to terms such as “medical freedom” and “vaccine choice” as “phony nonsense.”

This angry doctor seems to have no problem side-stepping the personal autonomy of individuals and urging lawmakers to take away the human right to freedom of thought, speech, conscience and informed consent so everyone can be forcibly vaccinated. Being allowed to give voluntary consent to taking a pharmaceutical product that can cause injury or death, in the eyes of Peter Hotez, is simply irrelevant.


References:

1 Hotez P. Why I’m standing up to the anti-vaccine nonsense. Houston Chronicle Nov. 20, 2018.
2 Chen Y. ‘Part of this is our fault’: Global Health expert talks anti-vaccine movement, preventable diseases. Duke Chronicle Feb. 20, 2018.
3
Fisher BL. Baylor’s Doc Hotez Bullies Parents of Vaccine Injured Children. The Vaccine Reaction Feb. 24, 2018.
4 
Definition of Hate/Hating (verb). Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
5 
Hotez PJ. Will an American-Led Anti-Vaccine Movement Subvert Global Health? Scientific American Mar. 3, 2017.
6 
Cáceres M. Dr. Peter Hotez: “Snuff Out” Anti-Vaccine Movement. The Vaccine Reaction Mar. 19, 2017.
7 
Definition of Snuff (verb). Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
8 
Resnick B. The dark psychology of dehumanization, explained. Vox May 7, 2017.
9 
Bandura A, Underwood B, Fromson ME. Disinhibition of Aggression through Diffusion of Responsibility and DehumanizationJ Res Pers 1975; (9): 253-269.

12 Responses

  1. For a guy who is supposed to be a “doctor” aka a teacher and healer, “Doctor” Hotez has some anger management issues which clearly need to be addressed before he should be granted the use of the appellation “doctor”. Could this anger be related to the fact that his own child has been injured by vaccines and he is lashing out at others rather than owning up to his role in that injury? It appears to be a case of projection. Since his child is injured all other children need to take on the risk he permitted his own child to endure.

  2. He is, after all, in his own eyes, “god”, and so much more qualified than any other lowly human to make these decisions. Because he went through 12 years of government school indoctrination to be a good little socialist and 8 -10 more years of University and AMA indoctrination and know has a string of letters behind his name, and a PhD, the rest of us, educated or not, are not worthy of his almighty position and not worthy of any of our God given, inalienable rights or any of our Constitutional or Bill of Rights freedoms.
    Not while he struts around being god-like
    In his own mind!
    This was a good article and this man in Houston is a good example of what we are up against to maintain a free country.
    The education system must be taken back!!! ASAP! Because the 10 year social experiment that is common core is 8 years in (planned and paid for by Bill Gates) and is giving us “leaders” like
    Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who don’t know the first thing about our system of Government in this country or our rights and responsibilities to keep a free nation!

  3. “This doctor is very angry and seems to be fixated on feelings of hate and killing, especially when people don’t agree with him. Think about the kind of strategy this doctor is pursuing, one that appears almost entirely focused on dehumanizing individuals who do not agree 100 percent with him about vaccination, health and autonomy.”

    Sounds just like a typical Leftist

  4. It’s a sad day to hear such a story
    What does this man get such a bad and biligerant idea about people who just want the freedoms this country offers.
    I have been to such a doctor who bullied
    Me terrible when I would not recieve the pertussis vaccination honestly she freaked out on me. Was trying to sell me on tetnus and I asked when was the last time you seen lock jaw? She went nuts
    I have been in health care for 23 years
    Scary to say the least

  5. He’s too far gone and his own hubris won’t allow him to understand the issue any differently, otherwise he’d have to share the tremendous blame for his own child being autistic upon himself.

  6. What can be done about people like Dr Hotez? I have NEVER vaccinated my children and my oldest is now 33 years old. It has been my informed consent that kept my children safe from what I see as a dangerous medical practice. I always advise my family and friends with small children to read anything and everything related to taking pharmaceuticals. It can mean injury or death. I, as a parent and now a grandparent can not look the other way way, when so many children and adults are being given these drugs. It is heartbreaking the callas and arrogant Dr. like Peter Hotez, who know damn well the serious side effects and injury and deaths related to and caused from taking these drugs. Mr Hotez is no better than serial killer in my opinion. e*

  7. The tables have now turned against this kind of medical fascism.
    It is time that they finally must demonstrate safety of effectiveness since this evidence does not exist.
    Blind faith is fine if one wants to join a cult.
    If one wants to be a normal healthy person we should not be the ones forced to jump through hoops to prove our stand. !!

  8. Not my doctor !
    I know of one here, where you are not allowed to ask questions. These doctors think they stand above the common man.
    They are human too and will die just like all of us.
    Where is the freedom of speech ?
    Articles that honestly report mishaps with other things are allowed, but say something about the dangerous side of vaccines, and you get thrown out. My Pinterest board with Vaccine info was deleted and I got a message that if I felt self-destructive, I should contact a doctor. Imagine if I came to one like this. And I am not self-destructive, on the contrary ! I stopped using Pinterest. I shall forward your articles one by one to friends.

  9. Unfortunately, we’ve worked with far too many kids whose vaccine injury came directly from Texas Children’s Hospital. The fact that Dr. Hotez is the head of their “Center for Vaccine Development” should automatically disqualify him as an impartial “expert” – he has a financial interest, therefore a conflict of interest that would certainly cause him to come down on the side of the well-financied, and much more violent, cyberbullying, cyberstalking and criminally stalking (and murderous) PRO-vaccine lobby. I am very sad for his child, who will likely never get the help that could be life-changing because probably Dr. Hotez truly believes that autism is an untreatable, lifelong condition without hope or help. And that is the compounding criminality behind vaccine manufacturers’ propaganda – children will not be helped because parents are being (again) lied to when they have already been injured.

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