Peter Hotez and Paul Offit, credentialed Expert™ mainstays on corporate state media evangelizing the vaccine gospel and smearing “anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists” (you know the spiel by now), were reportedly extended open invitations to the recent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting at the CDC concerning hepatitis B vaccines for one-day-old infants — a disease, it should never go without noting, which is almost exclusively spread through intravenous drug use and unprotected sex.
Mina Zadeh, Executive Secretary for ACIP, explains that she invited Offit and Hotez to address the committee, both of whom declined:
Robert Malone: We need to address the question of why Mr. [Aaron] Siri was here and whether other voices or points of view were solicited to participate in our discussion this afternoon.
Mina Zadeh: Just for everyone's knowledge, we invited several people to give a broad perspective on the US vaccine schedule, how we got here and where we are. We invited three experts: we invited Dr. Paul Offit, former ACIP member, to come present his perspectives, and we also invited Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine developer at Texas Children's Hospital. Unfortunately, they declined.
Related: Elizabeth Warren DESTROYED by X Community Notes Over Pharma Corruption
Paul Offit, Peter Hotez ("experts") and the AAP refused to turn up to the ACIP meeting today (ACIP Day 2). Even strongly pro vaccine ACIP member Cody Meissner called out the AAP, saying the AAP is engaged in politics instead of engaging in the scientific debate. pic.twitter.com/vQskkpsbsO
— Humanspective (@Humanspective) December 6, 2025
If the no-shows were an aberration, it could perhaps be written off as a scheduling conflict.
But these two individuals in particular, and vaccine evangelists in general, have a very long track record of ducking debates, as a matter of policy, with informed opponents, presumably because they understand they’d get handled and exposed.
Via Newsweek, June 2023 (emphasis added):
Comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan has offered $100,000 to a vaccine expert to debate Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on his show.
Rogan challenged Dr. Peter Hotez following an interview he had with Kennedy Jr. Hotez is dean at the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Texas.
During the interview on the Joe Rogan Experience, Kennedy Jr. doubled down on claims that vaccines cause autism, which has been repeatedly disproven after British anti-vaccine activist Andrew Wakefield's study into an apparent link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and the condition was exposed as flawed and ultimately retracted…
Following the interview, Hotez hit out at Rogan and Spotify over the interview and described the podcaster as sharing "vaccine misinformation."
In response, Rogan tweeted: "Peter, if you claim what RFKjr is saying is 'misinformation,' I am offering you $100,000.00 to the charity of your choice if you're willing to debate him on my show with no time limit."…
"And I'm open to a number of different options, but to be pressured to give you an answer on Twitter, now, with a 'take it or leave it' demand that's not how I work. Honestly, I don't even think that would be in your best interests," he added.
This is a non answer. I challenged you publicly because you publicly quote tweeted and agreed with that dogshit vice article. If you’re really serious about what you stand for, you now have a massive opportunity for a debate that will reach the largest audience a discussion… https://t.co/g1FGalC0Ym
— Joe Rogan (@joerogan) June 17, 2023
Needless to say, after a lengthy social media back-and-forth and much posturing on Hotez’s part, the debate never happened.
Related: Ousted Director Francis Collins Demands Americans Pay ‘Utmost Respect’ to NIH
Paul Offit, similarly, has a history of not just avoiding debates, even with credentialed experts in his own field, but also of censoring and curating audience questions at public events to avoid being outed as a hack.
Via Children's Health Defense, October 2018 (emphasis added):
Dr. Paul Offit was at the National Press Club in Washington, DC October 29th peddling his new book, “BAD ADVICE: Or Why Celebrities, Politicians and Activists Aren’t Your Best Source of Health Information.” It is clear that Dr. Offit desperately wants to be the authority on vaccines. He already is the industry shill, but is he the authority? The opinion of the crowd in attendance at the event was a resounding NO.
Children’s Health Defense advocates, parents of vaccine-injured children, and scientists came from all over the United States to ask Dr. Offit questions. They pointed out in their respectful, thoughtful questions that they do their own research. Although Offit declined to take questions directly from the audience, it was a good day for parents everywhere to see Dr. Offit forced to have a moderator filter the written questions he did address down to the very basics so he could answer with one of his canned responses. And the harder questions from the group were never presented to him. Attendees also distributed the list of questions to those present at the event. Perhaps the media will use them to create their own list of probing questions to ask Dr. Offit?
Mr. Kennedy in anticipation that Dr. Offit would again refuse a debate with him on the grounds that he isn’t an “expert,” has asked three leading scientific experts if they would be willing to debate Dr. Offit on the subject of vaccines and vaccine safety. Dr. Chris Exley, Dr. Christopher Shaw and Dr. George Lucier have all said yes. Children’s Health Defense hand-delivered a letter (dropped in below) to this effect from RFK Jr. to Dr. Offit last night at the promo event for “BAD ADVICE.”
Dr. Offit, we are waiting on your reply to debate the experts on vaccines. If you refuse, the reason will be obvious.
Related: SHOCKER: Bill Gates Met With Trump, Pressured Him Not to Investigate Vaccine Safety
In the good old days of centralized media hegemony, when vaccine skepticism was relegated entirely to underground media publications and tiny pockets of guerrilla resistance, the strategy of non-engagement with critics obviously worked to maintain a general consensus.
Those days are over, though, and these people don’t have the capacity to adapt with the changing zeitgeist — for many reasons, but above all because they don’t have the truth on their side.
