VICE News: Zika Virus, ‘Ghostbusters,’ and the Strange New Normal of Tropical Disease Pandemics
Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, president and director of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, Baker Institute fellow in disease and poverty at Rice University, and U.S. science envoy for the State Department and White House

“For the past 10 years, the world has seen extraordinary increases in viral and parasitic infections transmitted by insects and snails. … Epidemics of vector-borne diseases may become a new normal for areas of our planet where poverty, conflict and human migrations, temperature and rainfall alterations, or some combination of these factors are having their greatest impact. This year, the United Nations launched a new set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which touch on health, poverty, inequality, and the environment. Global leaders will need to … tackle these issues in future G7 and G20 summits if they hope to successfully battle these new disease epidemics. In addition, the world will need new technologies … while developing a new generation of safe and effective insecticides or other insect control measures. But this scientific innovation will require innovation in financing through public funds…” (3/8).