A vaccine expert went viral by predicting a new explosion in COVID-19 resulting from large crowds of Americans going to see Hollywood blockbuster films “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” – dubbed collectively by mainstream media as “Barbenheimer.”

The new doomsday warning came from Dr. Peter Hotez, a 65-year-old vaccine expert who posted a tweet last Sunday, wondering why nobody was concerned there could be a post-Barbie or a post-Oppie COVID-19 surge.

Hotez added nobody seemed to be “keeping track” of crowd-caused infections anymore, as the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, New York Post reports.

The vaccine expert, who is a dean of the National Tropical Medicine School at Baylor Medical College and a pediatrician, advised Americans to keep getting jabbed with booster shots, and especially find “KN-95 or N-95” ones.

The latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says 7,109 people were in the hospital with COVID-19 nationwide, as of July 15. This is several times fewer, in comparison with 45,000 at the same time last year.

Hotez was frequently interviewed on the far-left network CNN during the pandemic. However, his new doomsday warning has been ripped to pieces by critics.

Texas state Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican, declared on Twitter that no sane person was worried about COVID transmission anymore, adding Holtz’s “warped state of fear” must be a really sad condition.

Tim Carney, a Washington Examiner writer, slammed the left for their constant “fear-peddling” over COVID. Even a columnist for the far-left Washington Times, Sonny Bunch, declared it wasn’t 2020 anymore, so there was no need to worry.

Last month, podcaster Joe Rogan roasted Hotez for promoting vaccines at the expense of all other ways and means for keeping healthy.

It seems like the far-left crowd will keep milking the COVID-19 threat for much longer than sane, patriotic Americans could have imagined.