Dallas County Medical Society (DCMS) and Dallas County Medical Society Alliance Foundation (DCMSAF) had originally planned on hosting a dinner — Beyond Duty: A Gift To The World — for Celebrate Doctors Day on Friday, April 1, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The evening’s program was to be simply stellar and timely featuring 2022 Nobel Peace Prize nominees Dr. Peter Hotez and his colleague of 20 years Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi.
The two developed the world-changing Corbevax, a “COVID-19 vaccine that they were presenting to the world with an open patent.”
According to Peter, “Dr. Bottazzi and I have worked together for years, and our purpose has never changed — to bring attention to the neglected diseases of poverty and build a new generation of vaccine in the pursuit of global vaccine diplomacy. With our COVID vaccine, which is inexpensive and easy to produce, our intent was to make it available to millions of people in the world who would otherwise not have access to COVID vaccines.”
Thanks to their discovery and generosity, Peter told AMA COVID-19 Update’s Todd Unger recently that their technology has been utilized in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Botswana with “66M doses having been administered so far among adolescents 12 to 14 years old.”
However, because of Corbevax’s success, the original Beyond Duty dinner had to be rescheduled due to “demands on Dr. Hotez’s time in getting the world vaccinated!”
No problem. Event Chair Kaki Hopkins and Co-Chairs Dr. Donna Casey and Dr. Robert Haley simply adjusted the dinner to Friday, November 18, at the Hyatt and added Marnie and Dr. Kern Wildenthal as the honorary co-chairs.
With 20% of the dinner’s funds supporting the global reach of the Corbevax vaccine, the remaining 80% will benefit the DCMS’s providing capital support for the physicians in Dallas County through their Disaster Relief Fund and the DCMSAF’s providing capital and volunteer support for good health initiatives, health education and medical outreach for underserved areas in Dallas County.
If you’ve had the chance to see Peter, who heads up Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine’s National School of Tropical Medicine, interviewed, you know he’s articulate without talking way over the layman’s head. The evening should be fascinating to hear his and Maria Elena’s comments on any new developments in the ever-changing world of COVID and other viruses.
Tickets are available here.
* Photo courtesy of Beyond Duty: A Gift To The World