Money quote:
“I understand the importance of accelerating timelines for vaccines in general, but from everything I know, this is not the vaccine to be doing it with,” Dr Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told Reuters.
Hotez worked on development of a vaccine for SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), the coronavirus behind a major 2003 outbreak, and found that some vaccinated animals developed more severe disease compared with unvaccinated animals when they were exposed to the virus.
“There is a risk of immune enhancement,” said Hotez. “The way you reduce that risk is first you show it does not occur in laboratory animals.”
Hotez testified last week before the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology about the need for sustained funding for vaccine research. There remains no vaccine for any of the new coronaviruses that have caused outbreaks in the past 20 years.
Yes *that* Peter Hotez, of the 'Russian disinformation / right-wing supremacists' editorial in Nature.
I wonder how much payola he got to change his story?