Just last week, a huge group of scientists wrote an open letter to Spotify demanding action against the "dangerous" misinformation spread by the Joe Rogan podcast. Predictably, many spoke out against the letter, claiming it was demanding "censorship" and that Rogan was simply stating a personal opinion.
Well, a recent clip of his podcast shows the scientists may just be on to something. Hosting the Australian TV personality Josh Szeps, who is no stranger to facing tough questions on podcasts and panel shows, Rogan once again landed on the subject of how COVID-19 is supposedly mild, while the vaccine is an unnecessary risk for young people owing to the extremely rare side effects. Specifically, Rogan references the increased risk of myocarditis post-vaccination, which has been repeatedly found to be significantly lower than the risk of myocarditis in COVID-19 patients.
Szepps intervenes, and what follows is a series of arguments by Rogan that closely resemble the first of the five stages of grief – he begins by denying it with “that’s not what I’ve heard”; then asks Jamie to pull up the research in the way only Rogan knows how, before bargaining that maybe they are both right, but that Rogan was talking about specifically children; before finally stating that the research may not be reputable. Sadly, we never quite reached acceptance.
