Medical professionals call for Spotify to implement a COVID misinformation policy, citing Joe Rogan's podcast
270 health professionals wrote an open letter asking Spotify to take action against Rogan's harmful misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic
With more and more episodes full of harmful misinformation about COVID, it’s easy to feel nostalgic for the days that the Joe Rogan Experience featured episodes in which Joe Rogan boasted about his all-meat diet that gave him explosive diarrhea. After the host told people without health conditions to not get vaccinated and touted ivermectin (a drug used to treat horses for parasites) as a “cure”—even after testing positive for COVID himself—medical professionals have had enough.
As reported by Rolling Stone, 270 doctors, physicians, and academics penned an open letter to Spotify, asking for the streaming service to “implement a misinformation policy” as Rogan continuously shares false information about COVID. The letter specifically points out the harmful nature of the episode released on December 31, which featured a phony anti-vaccine “scientist” Robert Malone, who’d been banned from Twitter for sharing COVID misinformation.
“Dr. Malone used the JRE platform to further promote numerous baseless claims, including several falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines and an unfounded theory that societal leaders have ‘hypnotized’ the public,” the letter reads. “Many of these statements have already been discredited. Notably, Dr. Malone is one of two recent JRE guests who has compared pandemic policies to the Holocaust. These actions are not only objectionable and offensive, but also medically and culturally dangerous.”
The letter also points out that by Rogan telling young, healthy people to not get vaccinated, he’s actually putting his listeners in harm’s way, since they can still develop serious health risks if they contract COVID: ”The average age of JRE listeners is 24 years old and according to data from Washington State, unvaccinated 12-34 year olds are 12 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID than those who are fully vaccinated.”
The medical professionals add that “this is not only a scientific or medical concern; it is a sociological issue of devastating proportions and Spotify is responsible for allowing this activity to thrive on its platform.”
You can read the full open letter here.