Podcast host and former UFC commentator Joe Rogan is being called out after a controversial episode of his show, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” in which he argued against children getting vaccinated against COVID-19.
“If you’re like 21 years old, and you say to me, should I get vaccinated? I’ll go no. 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,” Rogan rambled during Friday’s episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” featuring comedian Dave Smith.
Spotify, which hosts Rogan’s show, did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Rogan continued to say that both his children got COVID, but that still didn’t deter him from arguing against kids getting their shots. “People are worried about them doing it for their children…. both my children got the virus. It was nothing,” he said. “I mean, I hate to say that if someone’s children died from this. I’m very sorry that that happened. I’m not in any way diminishing that. But I’m saying the personal experience that my children had with COVID was nothing. One of the kids had a headache. The other one didn’t feel good for a couple of days. And I mean not feel good, like, no big deal. No coughing, no achey, no like in agony. There was none of that. It was very mild. It was akin to them getting a cold.”
Smith agreed with Rogan and also said he wouldn’t plan on giving his kid the vaccine, either. “I’m not injecting my daughter with something to f—ing 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. I’m not taking any experiment on her.”
Smith was referring to the fact that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved any COVID-19 vaccines for use in people under 16 years old. Pfizer is approved for people over the age of 16, and Moderna is available for anyone over 18. Clinical trials of the vaccine on infants and younger children began last month, and scientists have called the effort to approve more child vaccinations “a crucial step toward controlling the pandemic.”
(Excerpt) Read more in: The Wrap