At his Racket News site, Matt Taibbi has a new subscribers-only post on Dr. Peter Hotez, star of stage and screen during the Covid epidemic. Taibbi calls his post “Notes from the Memory Hole: The Great Double-Talking Vaccine Scientist.” The long post by Taibbi comments on a video mashup by Matt Orfalea of Hotez’s greatest hits. Taibbi introduces the video in his post:
Few health figures have been more visible during the pandemic than Dr. Peter Hotez. Interviews by the Director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development are a master class in modern day branding, as the good doctor seldom appears without an instantly recognizable ensemble of lab coat, specs, and bow tie. (If cable TV had a Halloween Party, Hotez-in-a-bag would surely have been one of the most popular get-ups from 2020 on.) Hotez advertises his marketing acumen, making sure every time he appears on air that the shot is crammed with posed copies of his books. He’s become a legit pop culture phenom, appearing with Trevor Noah, TMZ, CNBC, CNN, Fox and beyond.
Like Dr. Anthony Fauci, Hotez was among the most prominent members of the “Your child will die in shrieking agony if you don’t get the shot” school of pandemic messaging. As Matt Orfalea’s brutal new video shows, however, he accrued more contradictory dosage recommendations on this score than Imelda Marcos had shoes….
There are many accounts to be settled in the wake of the Covid disaster. Dr. Peter Hotez’s is probably not high on the list, but his case is illustrative and history has its claims. Taibbi aptly concludes his post: “Orf’s painstaking edits are a reminder that many of our current public figures are counting on the now-common media injunction to forget anything said yesterday, in favor of all being babbled today. If you don’t want to let them get away with it, please share these videos of Matt’s. Laughter in that sense might be good medicine after all.”
Taibbi must have a lot of subscribers. His post has 453 comments as I write this morning.
Orfalea’s video is accessible without a subscription. I have posted it below. Orfalea makes good use of pitchman Billy Mays.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.