Hotez was awarded postdoctoral positions in molecular parasitology and pediatric infectious diseases at Yale University School of Medicine, where he subsequently became an assistant professor in 1992 and an associate professor in 1995. His early research focused on the pathogenesis and molecular mechanisms of human hookworm infection and would eventually lead to a vaccine now in clinical trials, as well as a vaccine against schistosomiasis, also in clinical trials, either of which would be the first successful vaccine for humans to protect against a multi-cellular parasite.
From 2000 to 2011, Hotez served as Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology and Tropical Medicine at the George Washington University. Following the World Health Organization's Millennium Development Goals in 2000, Hotez, along with Drs. Alan Fenwick and David Molyneux, led a global effort to rename diseases then being termed simply "other diseases," as "neglected tropical diseases", and promoting the use of therapeutic/preventive chemotherapy through a combination of drugs called the "rapid-impact package." Hotez has advocated for increased efforts to control NTDs since 2005 through publications and speaking engagements, helping to gain increased awareness resulting in a decrease of prevalence and disease burden in many areas. During these years, Hotez also led the Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington, DC, as well as efforts to establish PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, the first online open access medical journal focused exclusively on neglected tropical diseases.
Vaccine development
In addition to continuing work on vaccines already in clinical trials for hookworm and schistosomiasis, Hotez currently leads a team of researchers developing vaccines against other diseases including leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, SARS, and MERS.
COVID-19 Response
Peter Hotez has actively used his public profile on Twitter and other social media platforms to help combat misinformation about the outbreak of Covid-19. He has also appeared as an invited expert in a number of cable news and radio shows. In an interview with the American Medical Association, Hotez noted that communicating clear messages about the ongoing pandemic is of vital importance in an environment that is rife with confusing and misleading messages. "We’ve been hearing either the sky was falling or there was no problem... the reality is more nuanced than that and that requires some explanation based on scientific principles." Hotez has also warned that contrary to popular belief, more young adults than expected would be hospitalized due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus: "The message is that we’ve been trying to appeal to younger adults and have them shelter away and do the social distancing and explaining why they’re at risk for transmitting the virus to vulnerable populations." Hotez has also warned against optimistic coronavirus vaccine timelines, arguing that rushing through the conservative timeline could cause problems, "potentially mak individuals worse and threaten vaccine development in the U.S."
In 2008, he was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. He is an ambassador of the Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a member of the World Health Organization Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee for WHO TDR, and in 2011, Hotez was appointed as a member of the National Institutes of Health Council of Councils. He is a member of the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Publications and media
Hotez is the author of more than 400 scientific and technical papers on NTDs. In addition he is the author of Blue Marble Health: An Innovative Plan to Fight Diseases of the Poor amid Wealth and Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases: The Neglected Tropical Diseases and Their Impact on Global Health and Development, co-author of Parasitic Diseases, 5th Edition, a co-editor of Krugman's Infectious Diseases of Children, 11th Edition, and co-editor of Manson's Tropical Diseases, 23rd Edition and Feigin and Cherry's Textbook of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, 7th Edition. In addition, Hotez writes frequently for lay audiences, including papers in Scientific American and op-ed pieces for the New York Times.
