Developing ‘vaccine diplomacy,’ says Peter Hotez in his new book, is the key to ‘Preventing the Next Pandemic,’ as critical as any other international security threat. Peter J. Hotez. Image: Agapito Sanchez, Baylor College of Medicine ‘Political Allegiances Are Defining Science’ A scientist, pediatrician, and global health advocate, author Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, couldn’t have had a better demonstration of what his new book is about if he’d orchestrated it, himself. As Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science was released today (March 2) by Johns Hopkins University Press, the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, abruptly announced that “It’s now time to open Texas 100 percent,” canceling that huge state’s masking requirement and allowing businesses to operate at full capacity.