Its been more than three years since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and lives continue to be lost to the virus on a near-daily basis.
You’d think — after three years and more than 6.5 million deaths around the globe — that people might be rethinking those vaccine denials, but no such luck. We simply can’t seem to quite progress past the surge in anti-vaxx sentiments that the pandemic spurred, and a few key people are largely to blame.
Don’t get me wrong, I think every individual is responsible for themselves — and that includes doing the research to properly understand something as important as vaccines — but that doesn’t exonerate figures like Donald Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and now Elon Musk and Joe Rogan.
The latter duo have long been associated with heaps of disinformation crazes, but their latest campaign to once again stir up confusion and contention regarding vaccines is extremely stale. They’re once again seizing attention of Musk’s fading social media platform, Twitter, as both Musk and Rogan chase controversy via a far more reputable source.
Rogan, and later Musk, strove to stir up a fresh debate about vaccines in the wake of a controversial three-hour interview with Robert F Kennedy Jr., who spent that time railing against the life-saving vaccines we’ve come to rely on. Following the exhausting interview, vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez — who is also Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine — tweeted out a response to the disinformation-heavy episode.
Hotez shared a Vice article titled “Spotify Has Stopped Even Sort of Trying to Stem Joe Rogan’s Vaccine Misinformation,” and added that “from all the online attacks I’m receiving after this absurd podcast, it’s clear many actually believe this nonsense.”
This tweet ignited a firestorm among Rogan’s fanbase — and Rogan himself — who immediately reacted in the most predictable way possible. He demanded that Hotez come onto his podcast and earn Rogan some more cash by debating Robert F Kennedy Jr. — a person with absolutely no expertise on the subject of vaccines. He even tried to gain the upper hand by offering a $100,000 donation to the charity of Hotez’s choice, but Hotez — who’s been clear in his refusal to debate someone with absolutely no factual basis to their talking points — refused. He reminded Rogan that he has “my cell, my email” and noted that he is “always willing to speak with you,” but that he’s not going to add more drama to the vaccine discourse.
But Rogan was not so easily dissuaded. Even as Hotez was working to shift the conversation away from yet another pointless vaccine debate — and onto more important topics — Rogan kept pushing. He called Hotez’s response a “non-answer,” and claimed that he only challenged the vaccine expert publicly “because you publicly quote tweeted and agreed with that dogshit vice article,” before once again attempting to bait him into a debate.
Hotez is thoroughly uninterested in trading purposeless barbs with RFK Jr., however, and continued to dodge Rogan’s demands. He noted that, while he’s open to having a discussion about vaccines, he won’t give into Rogan’s attempt at bullying.
That’s when Elon Musk decided to get involved. The Twitter CEO and controversy magnet added his two cents to the argument via his own account, retweeting Rogan’s demand with a note that Hotez is “afraid of a public debate, because he knows he’s wrong.” Hotez was quick to respond to this latest attack, pointing out that Musk and Rogan’s blatant disregard of “200,000 Americans” who “needlessly perished… because they were victims of antivaccine disinformation” isn’t helping anyone.
Musk gave a typical response to this, pushing back that, while he’s “generally pro vaccine,” he thinks the world was over-vaccinated in the case of COVID-19, and once again tried to pressure Hotez into participating in the debate. He was soon joined by others, who swarmed Hotez’s socials — and, eventually, his private life — with yet more demands that he go on Rogan and argue with someone who will never be convinced by any amount of scientific fact.
Hotez responded to the backlash his refusal prompted on MSNBC in the wake of Rogan and Musk’s Twitter pushback, telling Mehdi Hasan that disinformation continues to cost lives around the globe. He also pushed back on claims that he is a “pharmashill,” noting that his work in fact avoids any of the big pharmaceutical companies and works to provide low- to middle-income countries with vital vaccines.
Musk and Rogan won’t let the argument die an easy death, of course, but is seems Hotez is largely done talking. He’s got nothing to say to people who can’t even understand the data he provides, particularly as Rogan, RFK Jr., and Musk continue to respond with attacks and immature complaints rather than genuine discourse. His time is far better spent elsewhere, and we’re sure the anti-vaxx team has plenty more targets to set their sights on next.
