Hotez is the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Houstons Baylor College of Medicine, and he co-directs the Texas Childrens Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. His many books include The Deadly Rise of Anti-Science and the new Science Under Siege, which he co-wrote with Michael E. Mann.
âHe picks things that seem designed to get clicks on the internet. He gravitates toward magical-seeming, spectacular explanations like Tylenol and circumcision,â said Peter Hotez. www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outl...
— Gary Schwitzer (@garyschw.bsky.social) 2025-10-10T12:18:08.319Z
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/hotez-autism-circumcision-rfk-21093425.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral
In a White House Cabinet meeting Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that boys who are circumcised are twice as likely to be diagnosed later with autism. Kennedy speculated that maybe its because circumcised boys are given Tylenol for pain.
"Thats absurd, said vaccine scientist and author Peter Hotez, who has long disagreed with Kennedys pronouncements about the causes of autism.
His statements are increasingly untethered to reality, Hotez said Friday. Its actually worrisome that hed pick circumcision as a factor to highlight.......
Hotez is frustrated:
One, he still doesnt acknowledge the role that genes play in autism.
Two, he doesnt acknowledge actual, well documented environmental factors. Lots of studies find weak associations for all sorts of things. But the evidence for some environmental factors, like Valproic, is much, much stronger.
And three, he picks things that seem designed to get clicks on the internet. He gravitates toward magical-seeming, spectacular explanations like Tylenol and circumcision.