CNN’s favorite bow-tie-wearing expert Peter Hotez is the kind of medical professional CNN liked; the kind who inserts politics into everything and jumps at the chance to attack Republicans.
Wednesday on CNN Newsroom, Dr. Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital switched from pediatrician and professor to full-on progressive activist, actually demanding the government step in to stop right-wing media.
Hosts Alisyn Camerota and Victor Blackwell were discussing vaccine boosters and the global effort to get vaccinated with Hotez before Blackwell invited Hotez to explain a very political tweet of his.
Reading the tweet where he claimed, “anti-science aggression” had “murdered 100,000 Americans” since April and America had “refused...to implement measures to halt it,” the CNN host asked, “You're calling out, I assume, politicians here. And what do you want them to do?”
Hotez argued deaths from Covid were because of vaccine refusal due to “anti-science aggression” from the right, and if we didn’t do something about it, that number would double by the end of the year.
“The point is, we've built in a lot of infrastructures to combat terrorism, cyber-attacks, nuclear proliferation. Anti-science is killing more Americans than all of those things combined. We need to really take measures and it goes beyond just calling out Facebook,” he began before citing the far-left nonprofit group The Center for Countering Digital Hate. Visiting their website, shows they target right-wing media sites as well as champion abortion and Democrat voting laws, among other pet progressive causes.
So, what were those sources of disinformation America needed to fight against? Conservative news and certain Republican politicians:
We've refused as a nation to go after the sources of the disinformation, what the Center for Digital Aid calls the disinformation dozen, nongovernmental organizations, the aggression from the political right, what we're hearing on the conservative news outlets, what we're hearing the anti-science aggression we're hearing from U.S. members of Congress including not only trying to discredit science, but discrediting scientists.
After worrying that vaccine refusal was being used by Vladimir Putin to sow distrust in the U.S., the frequent CNN and MSNBC guest demanded all government agencies unite to stop right-wing disinformation:
“We need to bring in the State Department. The Justice Department. Homeland Security. This goes way beyond HHS. And so far, we've not seen measures to combat that,” Hotez lamented.
So, not only should the government stop Fox News (Hotez’s Twitter timeline is filled with anti-Fox tweets) he suggests CNN viewers go to a radically left website to find out who was dangerous. The interview ended after this, with Camerota thanking him.
The liberal news network loved to have what were supposed to be unbiased medical professionals use their expertise to trash the right. CNN has had the good doctor weigh in on things way out of his purview before, such as criticizing the Supreme Court for protecting religious liberty. Unsurprisingly, he’s also a Democrat donor, according to Open Secrets.
CNN advocating for the government to "combat" media they don't like was paid for by advertisers Chevron, Comcast, and Liberty Mutual. Contact them at the conservatives fight back page here.
Read the transcript below:
CNN Newsroom
9/22/21
VICTOR BLACKWELL: Let me ask you about something you tweeted. The start of fall today. But tens of thousands of Americans died over the Summer of Covid. You tweeted this, ‘death by anti-science aggression. Sine April, anti-science aggression, defiance of vaccines despite their availability has murdered 100,000 Americans. More than global terrorism, cyber attacks, nuclear proliferation and yet we refuse as a nation to implement measures to halt it.’ You're calling out, I assume, politicians here. And what do you want them to do?
DR. PETER HOTEZ: Here's the problem. As I said, 100,000 Americans have died of Covid since May. Despite the availability of safe and effective vaccines. This was happening because of vaccine refusal. People bought into the disinformation, which I now call anti-science aggression. Victor, another 100,000 are going to die by December if current estimates. So we're going to be looking at 200,000 deaths by anti-science.
The point is, we've built in a lot of infrastructure to combat terrorism, cyber attacks, nuclear proliferation. Anti-science is killing more Americans than all of those things combined. We need to really take measures and it goes beyond just calling out Facebook. Yes, the social media companies clearly have a hand in this, but we've refused as a nation to go after the sources of the disinformation, what the Center for Countering Digital Hate calls the disinformation dozen nongovernmental organizations, the aggression from the political right, what we're hearing on the conservative news outlets, what we're hearing the anti-science aggression we're hearing from U.S. members of Congress including not only trying to discredit science, but discrediting scientists. Going after me and others and Dr. Fauci, of course. Some of the governors here in the South. And then lastly, what no one talks about is the Russian government under Putin who's using this as a wedge issue. There's even a name that's been appended to it. It's called weaponized health communication. Using this to sow discontent in the United States. And making a massive contribution to anti-science. We need to bring in the State Department. The Justice Department. Homeland security. This goes way beyond HHS. And so far, we've not seen measures to combat that.
CAMEROTA: Dr. Pete Hotez, thanks for bringing this all to our attention.
