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A vaccine scientist has warned that President-elect Donald Trump is poised to face an abundance of viral threats upon assuming office, including possibly another wave of COVID-19.

Dr. Peter Hotez, who was a zealous advocate of the COVID-19 vaccine, issued the warning while speaking on MSNBC this week.

Listen:

“We have some big picture stuff coming down the pikes starting on Jan. 21st,” he began. “Mr. Bloomberg mentioned H5N1. That I’m really worried about. It’s all over wild birds on the western part of the United States and going up in the north. It’s getting into the poultry. We’re seeing sporadic human cases. No human to human transmission yet, but that could happen. It’s in the cattle, it’s in the milk. And that’s just the beginning.”

“We have another major coronavirus likely brewing in Asia. We’ve had SARS in 2002, SARS 2 COVID-19 in 2019. And we know these viruses are jumping from bats to people thousands of times per year. But there’s still more. We know we have a big problem with mosquito-transmitted viruses all along the Gulf Coast, where I am here in Texas. We’re expecting Dengue and possibly Zika Virus coming back or even Oropouche virus or maybe even Yellow Fever. And there’s more,” he added.

“Then we have all this sharp rise in vaccine-preventable diseases going up because, in part, the anti-vaccine activism that’s so prominent right now. We have a five-fold rise in Pertussis cases, whooping cough, over the past year. Fifteen measles outbreaks this year. We’ve got polio that’s been in the wastewater in New York State. All that’s going to come crashing down on Jan. 21st on the Trump administration. We need a really, really good team to be able to handle this,” he concluded.

But because of Hotez’s history of fear-mongering about COVID-19, many critics were suspicious of his claims, with some even suspecting the claims were part of something far more nefarious.

Look:

Speaking of COVID, Hotez also recently warned of its potential reemergence and possible mutation into something worse.

“Our COVID-19 numbers are low again, but I expect them to rise,” he told the Houston Chronicle late last month. “You can protect yourself from that, of course, by keeping your immunizations up to date. If you got a dose of the vaccine in September, like I did, you’ll be due again around January.”

“But here’s the thing: COVID-19 isn’t the only COVID threat. There are other coronaviruses,” he added.

He then explained how there’s the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-1,), which appeared in southern China in 2002. There was also the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in 2012. And finally, there’s SARS-2, aka COVID-19.

“We should expect SARS-3 to come in the next few years,” Hotez continued.

During a separate interview with the Chronicle, Hotez shared his fear that President-elect Trump’s administration won’t be adequately equipped to handle these potential threats.

“I’m concerned that the Trump administration is picking individuals based on their ideologies rather than either their subject-matter expertise or their ability to get things done in government,” he said.

That said, he did express excitement about Trump’s controversial choice for surgeon general, Janette Nesheiwat.

“Dr. Nesheiwat had a lot of humility,” he said, describing previous discussions with her. “She wanted to know my opinion on COVID vaccines, how they worked and what were the different technologies. She was inquisitive and delightful to talk with. So I’m excited about her role as surgeon general. That’s at least one silver lining.”

Vivek Saxena
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