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Dr. Peter Hotez is one of the most prolific liars about COVID in the world. 

A big fan of medical totalitarianism, Hotez helped fund the gain of function research that likely led to the outbreak of COVID-19, and he was among the most vociferous critics of the lab leak theory, which is almost certainly correct. 

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Surprise, surprise, surprise. 

Now Hotez is panicked by the return of Donald Trump to the White House. A frequent guest on MSDNC, Hotez went on a rant against Trump and his appointments, and while doing so he made comments that one might or might not interpret as a threat. 

Perhaps I am being a bit paranoid, but for a guy at the center of the biological research complex that created COVID it seems a bit off-putting to say the least to hear him list a bunch of biological threats that he predicts will appear the day after Donald Trump moves into the White House. 

Hotez may be responsible for the COVID pandemic, along with Fauci and the Wuhan scientists. 

While casting concerns about Wuhan’s labs as “fringe,” Hotez has not mentioned his own connection to a project involving a laboratory-generated chimeric SARS-related coronavirus that has come under Congress’ microscope.

The project was helmed by Zhengli Shi, a senior scientist and “virus hunter” at the Wuhan Institute of Virology nicknamed the “Bat Lady.”

As part of his NIH grant, Hotez subcontracted funding for research on combined or “chimeric” coronaviruses, a scientific paper shows. Hotez’s grant underwrote two of Shi’s collaborators on the project.

In the 2017 paper co-funded by Hotez, Shi and her colleagues generated a recombinant virus from two SARS-related coronaviruses: “rWIV1-SHC014S.”

It’s not clear whether the paper co-funded by Hotez should have been stopped under a temporary “pause” on gain-of-function work before 2017. However, some independent biosecurity experts have said research on this chimeric virus in some ways epitomizes lapses in NIH oversight of risky research in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic.

A prior study of one of the coronaviruses that comprised the chimera, WIV1, found it to be “poised for human emergence.” Another prior paper on the other coronavirus, SHC014, stated that its future study in lab-generated viruses may be “too risky to pursue.”

“The work here should have been at the very least, heavily scrutinized,” said David Relman, a Stanford microbiologist and biosecurity expert. “This work should have been heavily reviewed for [gain-of-function], and probably should have been subject to the pause prior to December 2017.”

Shi’s participation in the joint project was funded in part by EcoHealth Alliance, the paper shows. This NIH grant to EcoHealth — “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence” — has garnered scrutiny for its research on manipulated novel coronaviruses in Wuhan labs.

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That’s why I am more than a little alarmed when this guy starts spouting off about viruses that will appear on the scene right after Trump returns to office. It may sound paranoid, but Hotez may already have the blood of millions on his hands. 

Hotez serves on The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, a panel of experts working to scrutinize the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Commission Chair Jeffrey Sachs, a Columbia University economist, has in recent weeks called for an impartial investigation of the lab leak hypothesis.

Meanwhile, Hotez has suggested that the commission’s final reports should not incorporate Sachs’ concerns.

“Whenever I discussed the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 was a laboratory release, Hotez strongly rejected that possibility, but never explained to me or to the Lancet Commission that he actually had a grant that was based on that very kind of risk. He should certainly have been clear on that,” said Sachs.

Sachs said the 2017 paper generated questions about whether a potential conflict of interest should have been disclosed to the commission.

“I asked all of the Commissioners repeatedly to be transparent about any possible conflicts of interest,” Sachs added.

January 21, 2025, is an oddly specific date to point to as the moment when a variety of viruses and microbes will suddenly pop up and devastate the United States. Are we to believe that once-a-century pandemics will suddenly appear just because Trump is in office?

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Apparently so, at least if Hotez is to be believed. 

During the height of the pandemic, Hotez went to war with Senator Rand Paul, calling him a threat to science itself for exploring the origins of and response to the virus. He was very interested in keeping the origins of COVID shrouded in mystery, advancing all sorts of implausible theories that pointed anywhere aside from his own research. 

Hotez is a big believer in the authority of The Science™ and argues that only the credentialed should have any say at all in matters that affect us all. He has been key to the propaganda machine that locked us down, forced us to inject an experimental and entirely novel genetic treatment, and harmed a generation of kids.

Perhaps I am paranoid–I freely admit that it sounds kooky to worry about a scientist deliberately releasing viruses for political reasons. 

But Hotez and people like Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance bear scrutiny. They are unethical and dangerous people, and they remind me of Mengele.

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In that light, I am keeping an eye out for stories about novel viruses popping up, or unexplained appearances of rare viral diseases. Not because I believe Hotez intends to release them, but because I don’t trust him not to.