No, vaccine researcher Dr. Peter Hotez didn't threaten to unleash viruses after Trump takes office

A doctor and vaccine researcher criticized Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s nomination as director of Health and Human Services, but some social media users are taking his words out of context and saying he threatened Americans.

"HERE WE GO! Vaccine researcher Peter Hotez says multiple viruses will be unleashed on America the day after Trump takes office," sticker text on a Dec. 6 Instagram video said. The text singled out a Hotez comment from an MSNBC interview, "We have some big picture stuff coming down the pike starting on January 21."

Another Instagram post shared the same video and said "Interesting start date, wouldn’t you say?" Multiple X and TikTok users also aired the video clip and described it as a threat from Hotez.

These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

Dr. Peter Hotez, director of Texas Children's Hospital’s Center for Vaccine Development, spoke Dec. 4 with MSNBC’s "Deadline White House" host Nicole Wallace. 

In the full segment, Wallace played a clip of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg urging the Senate to reject President-elect Donald Trump’s choice of Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic, to lead the federal health agency. Wallace mentioned Kennedy’s claims that childhood vaccines are linked to autism. 

(Screenshot from Instagram)

The video shared in the Instagram post is real, but it distorts what Hotez said. He did not say viruses would be "unleashed" after Trump takes office. He referred to several viruses that are already circulating and said Trump and Kennedy will be responsible for managing them when Trump takes office.

"There is no linking vaccines and autism, and it's awful that he keeps on pushing it. I mean, here's the reason why we need to care about this stuff, Nicole, is that we have some big picture stuff coming down the pike, starting on Jan. 21," Hotez said.

He mentioned the H5N1 virus, or bird flu, first. That worldwide virus has caused outbreaks in U.S. poultry and dairy cattle, and there have been at least four human cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"It’s all over wild birds on the western part of the western part of the United States, and going up in the north. It's getting into the poultry," Hotez said. "We're seeing sporadic human cases, no human to human transmission yet. But that could happen. It's in the cattle. It's in the milk, and that's just the beginning."

Featured Fact-check

Facebook posts

stated on November 15, 2024 in a photo

Smallpox was “never eradicated, it’s held in check by vaccines,” and RFK Jr. would eliminate coverage for the smallpox vaccine.

Bird flu was recently discovered in raw milk, which Kennedy has supported drinking in place of pasteurized milk. No one has gotten the virus from raw milk, but some raw milk was recalled in California after the virus was found in multiple retail samples.

Hotez also warned of possible new coronaviruses, mosquito-transmitted viruses along the U.S. Gulf Coast and a "sharp rise in vaccine preventable diseases" such as whooping cough and measles because of antivaccine activism.

"All that's going to come crashing down on Jan. 21 on the Trump administration. We need a really really good team to be able to handle this," Hotez said.

Hotez addressed the social media reaction Dec. 5 on X, writing, "Awful how extremist media misrepresented my comments with ⁦@NicolleDWallace⁩." He said his words were twisted and that he simply "outlined the tough infectious disease challenges the Trump appointees will face and inherit when they begin in January."

Hotez didn’t threaten to unleash viruses. He warned that the incoming Trump administration and the health department need to be prepared to manage multiple crises. We rate the claim False.