In an open letter from hundreds of doctors, Spotify is splayed over COVID remarks from Joe Rogan

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Even he admits he’s “a fucking moron,” but that doesn’t stop Joe Rogan’s daily double-down on actually being an ignorant asshole. In addition to the worthless trash that comes out of his mouth about “woke culture” and the silencing of “straight white men,” his mainstay has been talking shit about the COVID-19 vaccine, and now that content has come back to bite him in the ass. 

Wednesday, a group of 270 doctors, scientists, and health professionals wrote an open letter to Spotify about “false and societally harmful assertions” spewing from The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), demanding that the streaming service “establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform.”

The letter reads that Rogan’s 11 million listeners are repeatedly subjected to “misleading and false claims on his podcast, provoking distrust in science and medicine. He has discouraged vaccination in young people and children, incorrectly claimed that mRNA vaccines are ‘gene therapy,’ promoted off-label use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 (contrary to FDA warnings), and spread a number of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.”

The group specifically takes issue with an interview Rogan did with Dr. Robert Malone, a Twitter-banned virologist, who has claimed that an “Israeli scientist,” Pfizer, and the Israeli government are colluding to hide adverse side-effects of the vaccine from the public. Malone has additionally compared the pandemic policies to the Holocaust, which caused him to be banned from Youtube. 

The letter calls Malone’s misinformation to “hypnotize” the public “unfounded,” “objectionable,”  “offensive,” as well as “medically and culturally dangerous.”

Last year Rogan contracted COVID himself and told his listeners he was taking ivermectin—an animal dewormer—regardless of FDA warnings. He claimed he took the human version, which is approved for use only in treating some parasitic infections. 

The letter highlights the fact that most of Rogan’s listeners are 24 years old and unvaccinated; according to data, they are “12 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID than those who are fully vaccinated.” 

The letter ends with:

”As scientists, we face backlash and resistance as the public grows to distrust our research and expertise. As educators and science communicators, we are tasked with repairing the public’s damaged understanding of science and medicine. 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.”

Rogan, a comedian and UFC personality, is the most-listened-to podcast host in the U.S. and yet, he’s constantly pretending he knows something about science and doesn’t care about the consequences. 

On one of his most recent podcasts, Rogan discussed the Pfizer vaccine with Josh Zepps, an Australian TV host and podcaster. In it, Rogan claimed he’d read reports about an “adverse risk” of myocarditis among 12 to 17-year-olds who received the vaccine. 

Szeps slammed Rogan with the news that myocarditis is also an increased risk from that group if they get COVID-19. Which Rogan out and out denies. 

“No, no, no, I don’t believe it,” Rogan said. “That people who catch COVID when they’re young have a higher risk of myocarditis than people who get the vaccine have a higher risk of myocarditis.”

Of course, Rogan was wrong. So, in a cringe-worthy moment, Rogan checked and indeed Zepps was correct. 

“You’re about eight times more likely to get myocarditis from getting COVID than from getting the vaccine,“ Zepps says after Rogan looks it up on camera and sees the evidence for himself. 

Then to save his sorry ass after being called out on his nonsense, Rogan continues to doubt the actual report he’s just read. 

We probably won’t see Josh Zepps on Rogan’s podcast for a while 😂 pic.twitter.com/Eyff4FJn6p

— Borrachinha Depot (@FullContactMTWF) January 13, 2022

As my dad used to say, “You can’t change stupid.” But in Rogan’s case, like that of radio host Alex Jones—who claimed microchips were being injected into people under the guise of vaccinations—and so many in the GOP, they’re killing the very people who believe them. 

During the Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in October, Spotify’s chief content and advertising business officer, Dawn Ostroff made the claim that Spotify rejects content with false or dangerous information about COVID on its podcasts.

“We will not allow content that infringes or in any way is inaccurate. We are very very strict about our policies as they relate to harmful, threatening, malicious content, and we state all of our policies online,” Ostroff said, according to Fortune