Joe Rogan Faces Boycott Calls Over Vaccine Misinformation

Joe Rogan is facing boycott calls amid accusations of spreading misinformation regarding COVID vaccines on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.

Rogan recently welcomed lawyer, author, politician and nephew to President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy Jr., onto his Spotify podcast where they discussed the 2024 presidential hopeful's anti-vaccination stance at length.

Broadcaster Rogan described how he'd been convinced of Kennedy's viewpoint after reading his book, The Real Anthony Fauci. The book criticized the former chief medical adviser to the president during the pandemic as being part of "a historic coup d'etat against Western democracy."

The interview, during which Kennedy Jr. reiterated baseless and disproven claims that vaccines cause autism, drew criticism from Dr. Peter Hotez, dean at the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. Hotez's comments prompted Rogan to offer the vaccine expert $100,000 to debate noted vaccine skeptic Kennedy Jr. on his podcast.

Hotez has seemingly denied the opportunity to enter a debate. Newsweek has contacted Hotez via email for further comment.

The vaccine comments made on The Joe Rogan Experience have prompted a number of Twitter users to issue calls for a boycott of the podcast.

"Time to boycott @Spotify in defence of public health," wrote Canadian journalist Geoffrey P. Johnston. "Unless @Spotify brings anti-Vaxx @joerogan to heel, consumers should turn their backs on and close their wallets to @Spotify."

"If @SpotifyUSA is going to pay Joe Rogan $200 million to give 'medical advice' that will kill people, perhaps a boycott is in order," said another Twitter user.

"We need to boycott Joe Rogan," tweeted another. "That dude does not deserve to have the #1 podcast. It says a lot about us that he's been sitting at the top for so long."

Referencing Rogan's debate challenge to Hotez, another commented: "The whole narrative of counter-debating and giving equal airtime to conspiracy crooks is what is leading us towards climate catastrophe. Every serious professional should boycott Joe Rogan."

Amid the criticism, several other Twitter users spoke out in defense of Rogan and the statements made during his interview with Kennedy Jr.

"RFK Jr is right about vaccines," conservative commentator and author Melissa Tate insisted. "They will never debate him because they would get clobbered & then the whole world would know the truth about vaccines."

"A real scientist who believes in their position, would pay Joe Rogan to use his platform to spread their message," wrote another Rogan supporter. "Only a propagandist hack who knows they can't defend their position, would turn down $100,000 to debate on the most listened-to podcast on Earth. Truth is winning."

Another said: "As the parent of a child with severe vaccine-induced severe neurological damage labeled as autism, I have been waiting for twenty years to hear a presidential candidate acknowledge 'my truth' and my experience that I share with millions of others."

Meanwhile, another fan stated that they would rather take medical advice from Rogan over Hotez because "Rogan is an elite athlete (has been for 30 years) who has incredible knowledge from talking for hours to hundreds of experts. I'd trust Rogan on health [100 percent]."

Rogan dominated headlines in 2022, when he was widely criticized by hundreds of medical and scientific experts for airing false statements on vaccines and the COVID pandemic on his show.

That also led to a backlash from several artists, including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, who took their music off Spotify in protest against sharing a platform with the podcaster. A number of artists have since returned to the platform.

At the height of the backlash Rogan faced at the time, Spotify began adding an advisory to any podcast episodes that discussed the pandemic.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek also condemned Rogan's use of racial slurs on his podcast, but also stated his commitment to keeping the show on the streaming platform.