Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D.: Evolution of the anti-vaccine movement, the causes of autism, and COVID-19 vaccine state of affairs

**Peter Attia** (0:11)
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Now, without further delay, here's today's episode.
My guest this week is Dr. Peter Hortez. This may be a familiar name to a lot of you because this will be Peter's third time as a guest on this podcast. And I wanted to have him back for two almost unrelated reasons. The first is I wanted to do a follow-up to the discussion last week with Brian Deer, because in that discussion, we focused very heavily on one particular claim around vaccine and autism, namely the NMR vaccine. But I wanted to have a kind of broader discussion around the evolution of that theme. And we get into that in great detail. We explore the controversy around thimerosal and other additives along with the timing of vaccines and specific vaccines like the HPV vaccine and the concerns surrounding infertility and miscarriages. We then talk about his own personal journey as an autism parent, his daughter Rachel who's 28 years old now has autism and how that, if at all, changed his thinking. And we talk a little bit about the diagnosis of autism and how complicated that is and also what could account for the seeming increase in the prevalence and even the incidence of autism. We talk about the genetics of autism and we talk about the likely timeline of development and how this may or may not support the notion that there are environmental triggers at play with respect to autism, be it vaccines or otherwise. Finally, we talk about the state of affairs with respect to COVID vaccination, doing a little bit of a deep dive into some of the nerdy details around what we know four months out with respect to the existing vaccines in the United States and abroad, including some concerns over the AstraZeneca vaccine.
And what it can tell us about the emerging strains that are of some concern, particularly in South Africa and Brazil. So there's a lot packed into this. And if you have the ability to watch it on video, please do so on our YouTube channel. At one point, Peter shares some very interesting graphics explaining the mutations of the coronavirus that I found very helpful, and I think you will as well. So without further delay, please enjoy my conversation with Dr. Peter Hotez.
Hey, Peter, it's so great to have you back on The Drive. There's so much I want to talk about every time you and I sit down, whether it's on the podcast or just on the phone, I get the sense we could go on for hours. I want to really talk about a bunch of things today, but I want to start our discussion with a broader topic than just coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2, COVID, things like that, which I know is a topic you are still front lines on, and I don't think a day goes by that you're not being sought after for your opinion on things. We will certainly get to many of those things later today. But again, I want to start with a topic that was near and dear to your heart long before the coronavirus emerged in this fashion, which is the topic of vaccines and vaccine safety. Now, recently I had Brian Deer on the podcast, and I think for many people it was an illuminating discussion because Brian himself is not particularly a vaccine advocate. He's very clear about that. He's just an advocate for good science.
I think his work uncovering the web of lies and deceit surrounding the work of Andrew Wakefield is really unparalleled, especially when one considers the depths to which it was scrutinized both scientifically and even in the court of law. The first thing I really want to understand, Peter, is why is it that after the complete debunking of everything that Andrew Wakefield did, said, published, etc. why is this still an issue? Why is it that in a post Andrew Wakefield world, most polls would suggest somewhere on the neighborhood, correct me if I'm wrong, 20% of Americans still believe there's a relationship between vaccines and autism.