An anti-vaxxer Texas lawmaker is facing criticism for attacking a prominent vaccinologist and branding inoculations "sorcery."
Republican Rep. Jonathan Sticklandwho left the hardline conservative Freedom Caucus last weekbegan a Twitter spat with Peter Hotez, a professor at the Baylor College of Medicine, on Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Hotez had been lamenting an increase in vaccine exemptions, which he said put children "in harm's way for the financial gain of special and outside interest groups." But Stickland accused Hotez of hypocrisy and suggested that parental rights to reject vaccinations were paramount.
"You are bought and paid for by the biggest special interest in politics," Stickland wrote to Hotez. "Do our state a favor and mind your own business. Parental rights mean more to us than your self enriching 'science.'"
Hotez rejected the assertion. "I don't take a dime from the vaccine industry," he wrote. "I develop neglected disease vaccines for the world's poorest people. And as a Texas pediatrician-scientist it is most certainly my business." Hotez also said that such an outlandish accusation was "impressive, from a member of the Texas House of Representatives."
But Stickland stuck to his guns. "Make the case for your sorcery to consumers on your own dime," he replied. "Like every other business. Quit using the heavy hand of government to make your business profitable through mandates and immunity. It's disgusting."
Other Twitter users began sending messages of support to Hotez, who later thanked all those who rallied around him. "Never thought I would see a Texas legislator launch an unfounded personal attack. Time for some House ethics rules (and some adult supervision)," he wrote.
Hotez told Newsweek that Texas is in a "dire situation," with more than 64,000 children denied vaccinations "due to an aggressive anti-vaccine lobby here tied big dollars in PAC funds." He noted anti-vaxxers are being given momentum through the advocacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.the son of assassinated presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedywho heads up the anti-vax Children's Health Defense organization.
"It looks as though there are a few bad apples in the legislature who will do almost anything for those funds and recognition, including the endangerment of children and attacks on pediatricians and medical school professors," Hotez added. "Hopefully order and decency will be restored soon."
Stickland, whose Twitter profile says he is a "Christian Conservative Liberty Loving Republican," engaged in arguments with several other Twitter users off the back of his debate with Hotez. In one, the representative asked a user, "Vaccines are dangerous,don't you agree?" and in another attacked "another guy in a white coat who thinks he's a better parent than everyone else!"
"I will fightwith everything in meagainst the big government you desire," he wrote to another doctor. "One where you can force me to do things against my will. One where the state owns my children. Take a hike communist."