Hotez PJ. Preventing The Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-science. Johns Hopkins University Press; 2021. ISBN: 9781421440385.
Dr Holtz, an international vaccine scientist and tropical disease and coronavirus expert, explains how vaccine diplomacy may help address a new world order for global health. He was inspired by Dr Albert Sabin, who developed the oral polio vaccine during the 1950, during the height of the cold war. Holtz has been a trusted presence in the media, more so since the emergence of a novel coronavirus in 2019 that originated in Wuhan, China, and infected a global society within months. It is now considered one of the deadliest pandemics in history. The current population has not experienced a pandemic since 1918, and we have much to learn from experts like Hotez.
This book explains how illness and disease often follow pathways of health inequity. Although we have made great progress controlling deadly childhood diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, the threat of disease re-emergence and new diseases is a reality.
COVID-19 was a wakeup call to a global population that had become complacent with diseases that are well controlled by childhood and adult vaccination. However, antiscience/antivaccination movement still exist, often fed by fear, and-most recently-fueled by political agendas and misinformation. Hotez shares a historical perspective and hopes for the future.
Hotez proposes historically proven methods to inform and heal international relations while preparing us for a safer, healthier future. He explains that this cannot be achieved without vaccine diplomacy, as global scientist, political leaders, and communities come together to address neglected and newly emerging diseases Global health depends on a unified effort to monitor all disease models, especially those that are considered poverty-related diseases.
In this most recent work and in past writing, Dr Holtz looks at the problem of disease from many vantage points. In 2020, he wrote Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism, a book that draws on his experiences as a pediatrician, vaccine scientist, and father of an autistic child.
Both books provide readers with scientifically based information that is easily understood. The books empowers health care providers to effectively inform colleagues and lay populations as we strive to control the current pandemic and prepare for new challenges.