Neglected Diseases

PETER HOTEZ HAS SPENT HIS CAREER STUDYING INFECTIOUS diseases that others weren’t paying attention to, developing vaccines that “no one else will make.” Four years ago, Hotez and a team of Texas scientists developed a vaccine that he now believes could have protected against the new coronavirus, which has killed more than a hundred thousand people around the world. But they couldn’t find funding to begin testing on humans, so it languished in a freezer. Now Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, is warning the public and government officials about the novel coronavirus, while working to develop and test vaccines.

In late March, Hotez spoke with the about the United States’ coronavirus response and the need to invest in public health much, much earlier.