Video of Joe Rogan Challenging Doctor to Vaccine Debate in 2019 Resurfaces

The ongoing vaccination feud involving Joe Rogan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Peter Hotez has seemingly been simmering for over four years.

Social media users watched as scientist Dr. Hotez argued with the podcast host on Twitter over vaccine "misinformation" allegedly spouted by Kennedy in a recent edition of The Joe Rogan Experience. Rogan challenged Hotez to debate Kennedy on his show, offering up $100,000 for charity, but Hotez declined.

On the podcast, Kennedy, who announced in April that he is running against President Joe Biden in the 2024 election for the Democratic nomination, claimed that children can suffer adverse reactions to vaccines, otherwise known as vaccine injuries.

"I look at some of my friends that I've made over time, who have children who are affected children who, you know, were perfectly healthy kids, who exceeded all their milestones. They lost everything," Kennedy said as he teared up.

Newly resurfaced footage shows that this wasn't the first time that Rogan had challenged Hotez to debate Kennedy. He had also done so on a 2019 episode of his podcast.

Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and a global health advocate was a guest on episode #1261 of The Joe Rogan Experience. The pair spoke for almost two hours, and during an exchange about vaccines, Rogan suggested a debate. Hotez strongly declined.

"Now I know that Robert Kennedy Jr., he's a big [anti-vaxxer] and he seems like a very intelligent guy. How could he not be aware of the science behind this? And what is he getting wrong?" Rogan asked Hotez.

"What he's getting wrong is just about everything," Hotez said. "I've only followed what they what he does with vaccines. But it's all nonsense."

"Would he be a guy you want to have a debate with? Have a discussion with?" Rogan asked Hotez.

Hotez replied: "I'm uncomfortable with the idea of a debate because it's like debating a Holocaust denier about whether the Holocaust exists."

Rogan, who is now facing his own controversy after being accused of spreading vaccine misinformation on his podcast, accepted Hotez's rejection but suggested he should reconsider the offer.

"I understand what you're saying. But...if you're you're complaining, there's 19 books ahead of yours that are anti-vaccine books, you've already lost the battle," Rogan said. "It's time to regroup, and maybe regrouping would be confronting someone with actual scientific information.

"I mean, you are a real doctor, you're a guy who actually studies this, and you're a man who understands the science. You're a legitimate academic, you could actually put a dent in this with a real conversation."

"Yeah, potentially," Hotez responded. "Remember, he's an attorney. He's very clever, and presumably, he knows how to do arguments in court, and what am I? I'm a scientist."

The snippet went viral on Twitter on Sunday after being shared by the podcast Liberty Lockdown with Clint Russell. Other Twitter users weighed in and mocked Hotez for his stance on the subject back then.

"The vaccine debate is happening. Refusing to participate is choosing to lose by default," Spike Cohen, founder of the nonpartisan libertarian activist group You Are The Power, tweeted in response to the video.

"If you cannot debate, then you have already lost the argument," @drlatz62 tweeted.

Twitter user @1MartinMatthews wrote: "Any credible expert should be able and willing to debate someone else on their subject of expertise."

The rejuvenation of this idea of a debate between Kennedy, the author of the book The Real Anthony Fauci, and Hotez came after the doctor slammed Rogan for airing Kennedy's anti-vaccination views. Hoetz tweeted on Saturday: "Spotify Has Stopped Even Sort of Trying to Stem Joe Rogan's Vaccine Misinformation...And from all the online attacks I'm receiving after this absurd podcast, it's clear many actually believe this nonsense."

Rogan, reacted later that day, giving Hotez an ultimatum. "Peter, if you claim what RFKjr is saying is 'misinformation' I am offering you $100,000.00 to the charity of your choice if you're willing to debate him on my show with no time limit," he wrote on Twitter. Hotez then denied the opportunity, telling Rogan he'd talk to him directly.

Newsweek contacted Hotez's representatives, but they said they had nothing more to add to the comments than those he'd made on a Sunday appearance on MSNBC.

"I offered to go on Joe Rogan's podcast again, I've been on a couple of times. But not to turn it into The Jerry Springer Show with having RFK Jr. on," he said on The Mehdi Hasan Show on MSNBC.

Kennedy has taken an anti-vaccination stance long before the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2005, Kennedy wrote in an essay that he believed "our public-health authorities knowingly allowed the pharmaceutical industry to poison an entire generation of American children" by vaccinating them.

In 2021, Instagram removed his account for "repeatedly sharing debunked claims about the coronavirus or vaccines." Last year, the photo-sharing social media platform removed the account of his nonprofit, Children's Health Defense, for spreading medical misinformation. His personal account was reinstated shortly after he announced his candidacy for the 2024 election, The Washington Post reported.

Correction 06/20/2023, 12:05 p.m. ET: The political categorization of Spike Cohen's group You Are The Power was updated from "conservative" to "nonpartisan libertarian."