In an open letter published online Monday, 270 scientists and medical professionals criticized the popular “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast for spreading misinformation.
They called on Spotify, the platform that hosts the podcast to “establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform.” The show – hosted by comedian, actor and UFC commentator Joe Rogan – was ranked the number one podcast on Spotify last month.
In particular, the letter takes issue with a Dec. 31 episode of the podcast featuring guest Robert Malone. According to The Atlantic, Malone claims to have invented the mRNA technology used to create two of the COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.S., and has been spreading vaccine misinformation since at least the summer.
“As physicians, we bear the arduous weight of a pandemic that has stretched our medical systems to their limits and only stands to be exacerbated by the anti-vaccination sentiment woven into this and other episodes of Rogan’s podcast,” said the letter.
Those who signed the letter are not the only medical professionals concerned about misinformation. In July, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued his first Surgeon General's Advisory to warn the American public about the “urgent threat of health misinformation.”
Apart from his interview with Malone, Rogan has also said that he used the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin when he was diagnosed with COVID-19 in September. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned against using ivermectin, which is typically used to treat livestock such as horses, as a COVID-19 treatment.
“I actually think he’s a menace to public health because he speaks on things that have no scientific backing,” Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health who signed the letter, told The Washington Post Friday.
Wallace has received misogynistic and sexual harassment in direct messages from Rogan supporters since signing the letter, she told The Post.
“The Joe Rogan Experience” reaches an estimated 11 million listeners per episode. According to Media Monitors, 71 percent of the show’s audience is male and the average age of a listener is 24. Data from the Kaiser Family Foundation indicates that 16 percent of all males and 14 percent of people age 18 to 29 do not plan to get vaccinated.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has determined that vaccines are safe and effective at preventing severe COVID-19 infection.
According to The Washington Post, Spotify has removed episodes of other hosts who have spread COVID-19 misinformation. It has also removed 40 “unrelated” episodes of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” including one where Alex Jones pushed a false theory that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
Some other media personalities came to Rogan’s defense after the letter was published, including Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro.
Peterson is a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto who has appeared on Rogan’s podcast. He faced criticism from another podcaster, Ethan Klein, this week. Klein announced via Twitter that he removed episodes with Peterson from his H3H3 podcast.
“I assure all of those – particularly those in the media – calling for Joe Rogan’s censorship, Joe is laughing at you,” Shapiro, who hosts “The Ben Shapiro Show” podcast, tweeted Friday. “And he should be.”
Neither representatives for Rogan nor Spotify immediately returned requests for comment about the letter early Friday, said The Washington Post.
Earlier this week, Australian media personality Josh Szeps fact-checked Rogan on-air about myocarditis risks related to COVID-19 vaccines.
“If anyone was going to make me look dumb on the podcast I’m glad it’s @joshzepps because I love him, and he’s awesome,” Rogan tweeted afterwards. “That video is cringey, but it’s what happens when you stumble in a long form podcast when you didn’t know a subject was going to come up and you wing it.”
“I’m sure I’ll stumble again in the future, but I honestly do my best to get things correct,” Rogan also said.
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