Pediatrician-scientist to present on vaccine diplomacy at next Dixie Forum

In its first installment of the Spring 2020 semester, Dixie State University’s weekly lecture series Dixie Forum: A Window on the World will host a presentation on vaccine diplomacy.

Dr. Peter J. Hotez, a pediatrician-scientist in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development, will present “Vaccine Diplomacy in an Age of War, Political Collapse, Climate Change, and Antiscience.” The forum is set to take place at noon on Jan. 14 in the Dunford Auditorium, located in the Browning Resource Center on the Dixie State campus. Admission is free, and the public is encouraged to attend.

In his Dixie Forum presentation, Hotez will summarize the progress that United Nations agencies and the U.S. and U.K. governments are leading to vaccinate the world’s children and provide mass treatment for neglected tropical diseases. Additionally, he will report on how progress in vaccines and vaccine development has stalled or reversed due to modern forces of war, political unrest, urbanization, human migrations, blue marble health, climate change and a growing anti-vaccine movement.

Hotez also will review the new hotspot global areas where diseases have emerged or re-emerged and describe how modern vaccine diplomacy can ensure the ability to develop the needed new vaccines or overcome hurdles to vaccinate the world’s children.

In addition to serving as a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology, Hotez is the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular biophysics from Yale, a doctorate in biochemistry from Rockefeller University and a doctor of medicine from Weil Cornell Medical College. Hotez has authored more than 450 original papers and three single-author books. Additionally, he is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Dixie Forum is a weekly lecture series designed to introduce the St. George and Dixie State communities to diverse ideas and personalities while widening their worldviews via a 50-minute presentation. The next installment of Dixie Forum, set to take place at noon on Jan. 21 in the Dunford Auditorium, will feature a presentation and live performance by the Utah Repertory Dance Theatre Dancers.