Vaccine scientist says anti-vaxxers 'stalked' him after Joe Rogan's challenge

A vaccine scientist says anti-vaccine activists "stalked" him at his home Sunday after Joe Rogan and others, including Twitter owner Elon Musk, challenged the scientist to debate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine proponent and Democratic presidential candidate, over vaccine misinformation.

Peter Hotez, a Houston-based scientist and pediatrician in global health, vaccinology and neglected tropical disease control, spent much of the pandemic debunking misinformation spread online about covid-19 and the vaccines targeting the coronavirus. He was also part of a Nobel Prize-nominated team of scientists who created an affordable, easy-to-make coronavirus vaccine.

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Hotez criticized Rogan over the weekend as "awful" for hosting Kennedy, one of the country's leading anti-vaccine advocates who has peddled false claims linking vaccines to autism, on Rogan's wildly popular podcast last week. In response, Rogan publicly challenged the vaccine scientist to debate Kennedy, in a tweet Saturday that's now been viewed more than 50 million times. Rogan claimed he'd give $100,000 to the charity of Hotez's choice "if you're willing to debate him on my show with no time limit." Then, billionaires claimed they'd give more money and vaccine skeptics piled on. Among them was Musk, who tweeted that Hotez was "afraid of a public debate, because he knows he's wrong."

But Hotez said he was not prepared for what unfolded Sunday, when anti-vaccine activists showed up at his home to harass, taunt and confront him about Rogan's challenge to debate Kennedy. He tweeted that he was "stalked in front of my home by a couple of antivaxers taunting me to debate RFKJr."

In an interview Monday, Hotez said he and his wife were returning with a cake for Father's Day when two people "accosted me when we were walking into the house."

"He shoved a cellphone camera in my face and asked if I would debate RFK on Rogan. They were clearly lying in wait," Hotez, 65, told The Washington Post. "It's very sad. All we were trying to do is get a cake for Father's Day."

He added, "The anti-vaccine attacks usually come in waves of aggression, and this one is about as bad as it's been in the last 20 years."

A Spotify spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday morning, and Rogan has not publicly addressed how people went to Hotez's home following his challenge to debate Kennedy.

A spokesperson with Kennedy's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In a reply to one of Rogan's tweets about Hotez, Kennedy urged the vaccine scientist to have what he described as a "respectful, congenial, informative debate that the American people deserve."

Rogan has repeatedly played down the need for coronavirus vaccines and used his platform to flirt with misinformation about covid.

In January 2022, a coalition of hundreds of doctors and public health experts called out Spotify for allowing Rogan to spread "false and societally harmful assertions" about covid and vaccination. Rogan responded by vowing to have mainstream experts give their viewpoints after guests espousing more fringe opinions, saying he would "do my best to make sure that I've researched these topics - the controversial ones in particular - and have all the pertinent facts at hand before I discuss them."

"I don't always get it right," Rogan, whose show has an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, said in 2022.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek wrote in a news release last year that he refused to cancel Rogan, saying, "It is important to me that we don't take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them." That support came around the same time that roughly 70 episodes of "The Joe Rogan Experience" were removed from the platform without explanation.

Kennedy, who announced in April he was running for president, has parlayed his famous lineage as the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy to become an influential advocate in environmental law. He has also been publicly criticized by his own family for his anti-vaccine activism, and eventually became one of the most prominent figures spreading coronavirus vaccine misinformation during the pandemic.

A 2022 analysis from the Peterson Center on Healthcare and KFF estimated at the time that more than 234,000 unvaccinated Americans died who could have lived had they been immunized against the virus.

Hotez is no stranger to attacks, pointing to how Stephen K. Bannon, a right-wing podcaster and longtime adviser to former president Donald Trump, called Hotez "a criminal" last week. Hotez is a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine and the co-director for the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston.

Hotez said he has attempted to reach vaccine skeptics by trying to go on "The Joe Rogan Experience" during the pandemic, when the host was "having these people on his show who were very damaging" and spreading vaccine misinformation. He was unsuccessful.

That trend continued when Rogan hosted Kennedy on his show Thursday for a three-hour conversation. A couple of days later, Hotez quote-tweeted his support of a Vice article titled, "Spotify Has Stopped Even Sort of Trying to Stem Joe Rogan's Vaccine Misinformation."

"From all the online attacks I'm receiving after this absurd podcast, it's clear many actually believe this nonsense," Hotez wrote on Saturday.

Hotez's tweet got the attention of Rogan, who put out his challenge for the vaccine scientist to debate Kennedy.

After Hotez replied to Rogan that he was "always willing to speak" with him, Rogan criticized what he called "a non answer" and his support of the Vice article.

"If you're really serious about what you stand for, you now have a massive opportunity for a debate that will reach the largest audience a discussion like this has ever had," Rogan wrote in another tweet viewed by tens of millions of people.

Hotez said that while he was "happy to come on and clear the air," he would not do it with Kennedy. Hotez told The Post that he had spoken to Kennedy before the pandemic and that he did not "think it's going to be productive" to speak to him again now about vaccine misinformation.

"To those misunderstanding what he's saying, he's NOT agreeing to debate @RobertKennedyJr," Rogan wrote.

The conversation escalated further when billionaires like Bill Ackman vowed to add $150,000 to the total so "the public can hear an open debate on an important topic."

Musk chimed in again. "Maybe @PeterHotez just hates charity," he wrote.

While Hotez did have billionaire supporters of his own such as Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, the vaccine scientist said he was overwhelmed by how some of the most influential users on the app, including its owner, were going after him for quote-tweeting an article critical of Rogan.

"My first thought was, 'Between Rogan and Elon, and maybe RFK too, it includes just about every follower on Twitter,'" he said, jokingly. "I was like, 'My God, what are they saying about me?'"

The situation, however, worsened Sunday when he and his wife returned from the bakery. Hotez said he quickly realized what was going on when a right-wing provocateur approached him with his camera phone and asked him about "vaccine injuries on children." The vaccine scientist is seen on video saying the man was harassing him before locking the front gate to his home. Another woman is heard yelling in the background at Hotez.

"These kind of people usually don't come to my home," he said. "You always worry if they are carrying a weapon. I wasn't going to hang around to find out."

In the days since his back-and-forth with Rogan went viral, Hotez said he's received death threats in his inbox. Hotez, who is Jewish, said he's also received messages with Nazi imagery. It has resulted in increased security at work and home, he said.

While he's thankful for the support from people such as Cuban and actor and activist George Takei, Hotez is concerned about the rising "anti-science aggression" that Rogan has helped fuel, he said.

"He didn't have to blow this up by bringing in RFK, and the same goes for Elon. There was no reason for piling on like that," he said.

Hotez ended up eating his Father's Day cake, but there was no peace and quiet. Still, he remains open to talking to Rogan: "Joe can have me on his show at any time."

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