Joe Rogan’s Anti-COVID-19 Vaccine Comments Cause Uproar Among Health Experts

Popular podcaster Joe Rogan found himself in the center of controversy this week after he encouraged young and healthy people to not worry about getting the COVID-19 vaccine in his most recent podcast episode.

The Joe Rogan Experience released a new episode on April 23, in which Rogan stated, “If you’re a healthy person, and you’re exercising all the time, and you’re young, and you’re eating well, like, I don’t think you need to worry about this [the COVID-19 vaccine].” Rogan has a history of making controversial statements in his episodes, including hosting right-wing guests like Gavin McInnes and Milo Yiannopoulos on his show. (These episodes are no longer available on Spotify.)

Rogan started off by saying that he believes the vaccine is a good thing, and that both his parents are vaccinated. He went on to say that since his kids got COVID-19 and were fine, that younger people shouldn’t get vaccinated and that it was “no worse than the flu.”

“We’re talking about something that is not statistically dangerous for children. But yet people still want you to get your child vaccinated, which is crazy to me,” Rogan stated in the episode.

Younger people can, and do, still die from contracting COVID-19. Even if they don’t end up dying of the disease, they have a high percentage chance of spreading it to someone who may not survive the disease.

Despite vaccination rates picking up, with America having almost 30% of its population fully vaccinated as of April 28, 2021, the country is still averaging around 712 deaths per week, with 574,000 deaths total.

Spotify has removed more than 40 episodes of Rogan’s podcast either because of the spread of misinformation or the encouragement of unsafe COVID-19 practices.