Joe Rogan, the host of the most listened-to podcast in 2020, recently used his platform to discourage young and “healthy” people from receiving the coronavirus vaccine.
While Rogan made the comments during the April 23 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, a clip from that day’s show made the rounds on Twitter Tuesday — four days after it initially aired.
Rogan began by noting that he believes vulnerable people should get vaccinated, revealing that his parents received their doses and that he generally believes the vaccine is safe.
Rogan, who is not a medical expert, does not, however, think that healthy people under 21 years old should receive the vaccine.
“But if you’re like 21 years old, and you say to me, should I get vaccinated? I’ll go no,” he said to comedian and podcast guest Dave Smith. “Are you healthy? Are you a healthy person? Like, look, don’t do anything stupid, but you should take care of yourself. You should — if you’re a healthy person, and you’re exercising all the time, and you’re young, and you’re eating well, like, I don’t think you need to worry about this.”
Smith agreed with Rogan, who later revealed that his own children contracted the coronavirus, but barely showed any symptoms.
“Look, my daughter is a lot younger than your kids, but I’m like, yeah, I’m not injecting my daughter with something to fucking virtue signal. Like, I’m not doing that. If there’s something that she’s of no risk, statistically has no risk from, I’m sorry,” Smith added. “I’m not taking any experiment on her. And that’s my attitude toward it.”
In all, 296 children had died of the coronavirus in the United States as of April 22, the day prior to the episode’s release, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics and Children’s Hospital Association.
Rogan then exclaimed that it was “amazing” that not vaccinating people under 21 years old, following a pandemic that has lasted more than a year, would be considered “controversial.”
“That even saying that, I’m not going to inject my child with the vaccine, is controversial. It’s crazy. Because again, we are not talking about even the flu that we just found out killed 22,000 people last year,” he added. “We’re not talking about that. We’re talking about something that is not statistically dangerous for children. But yet people still want you to get your child vaccinated, which is crazy to me.”
Although Rogan insisted that people are pushing parents to vaccinate their children, the Pfizer vaccine is not yet available to those under 16 years old, while one must be at least 18 to receive the Moderna shot. Covid-19 vaccine trials on infants, children, and teenagers have, however, begun.
Watch above, via The Joe Rogan Experience.
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