The Reach Out: Dr. Peter Hotez
The familiar COVID doctor aims for "a minimum of 10, 000 steps a day, and more on the weekends."
With his trademark bowtie, Dr. Peter Hotez has become a familiar face to television viewers throughout the pandemic, and has shared his expertise about COVID and vaccines on many podcasts.
Dr. Hotez is Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and Co-Director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.
Dr. Hotez led a team of Texas researchers that developed a vaccine technology which was given emergency use authorization in India just a few days ago.
“If you’re talking about a serious effort to vaccinate the world and prevent new variants from emerging, we think we’re now going to make a very important contribution," said Dr. Hotez, of the vaccine technology’s significance.
I reached out to Dr. Hotez to find out how he tries to keep active while dealing with one of the biggest public and global health challenges of his career.
With your very busy job, especially over the last two years, are you able to find time to exercise regularly?
I try to commit to a minimum of 10, 000 steps a day — that's one of the things that I do whenever possible. If I can do a Zoom call while walking with my iPhone, I will do that.
Do you make a conscious effort to take active breaks?
Yes, I will walk around The Texas Medical Center, especially if the weather's nice.
People will see me walking the halls of college to get my steps in.
If I don't get my steps in during the work day, I'll take a walk in the morning in my neighborhood. So a minimum 10K steps a day and then I do two miles on the treadmill at six miles an hour, so I get another 20 minutes in there.
Are you more active on the weekends?
With the work we’re doing every day on global COVID vaccine efforts, as well as talking to the nation, and all the lab meetings and Zoom calls, this has been the hardest I've ever worked in my life, so I’ll try to increase my activity on the weekends.
When you exercise indoors, what television channels might we find you watching?
I’ll watch CNN, MSNBC, and ‘First Take’ on ESPN while on the treadmill.
Do you listen to podcasts or music while you’re exercising?
When I walk outside, I’m paying attention to the tremendous nature and wildlife in the Houston area, so I don’t listen to any podcasts.
I know that you make appearances on Canadian television.
Yes, I love speaking to the Canadian people when given the opportunity. I've made regular appearances on the CBC News, including "Power & Politics" and Global TV, among others.
My grandfather, Morris Goldberg (aka Maurice, aka Moishe) immigrated to Montreal from Paris in the early 20th century ahead of the Nazi occupation, so I often say that I exist because of the goodness of the Canadian people.
As a doctor, you know very well that many kids don’t get enough exercise. How do you think we can encourage young people to be more active?
Unfortunately, kids have become too dependent on their electronics, the internet, and social media, when I was a kid our neighborhood always had baseball and football games going. I think it's yet another sign of fragmented communities, but we need to figure this out.
For nearly two years, Dr. Hotez has been a comforting presence on our airwaves and a trusted source of COVID information on Twitter. He continues to be on the front lines of global vaccine development — and somehow he still gets his 10, 000 steps in.
Thank you, @PeterHotez
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