Joe Rogan condemned for telling ‘healthy 21-year-olds’ to not take Covid vaccine

Joe Rogan has sparked a backlash after claiming that young and healthy people need not get a coronavirus vaccine.

Speaking on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, he compared the effects of Covid to a “cold” and said:

“I think you should get vaccinated if you’re vulnerable. My parents are vaccinated.

“But if you’re like 21 years old, and you say to me, should I get vaccinated? I’ll go no. 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.”

But his comments have caused an outcry because coronavirus is something young people need to worry about.

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Scientists estimate that at least 70 per cent of the population need to be inoculated against the virus in order for herd immunity to occur. Of course, young people can spread Covid to those more vulnerable regardless of their own experience with the illness.

An increasing number of young people are being hospitalised with Covid in the US, CNN reports, due to the fast-spreading variant first see in the UK. Meanwhile, data from the American Academy of Pediatrics and Children’s Hospital Association reveals that 296 children have died of Covid-19 in the US.

But Rogan claimed children’s experience of the illness would be mild like a “cold” and his guest, comedian Dave Smith, agreed and claimed that vaccinating children was “virtue signalling”.

It is not the first time his comments have made people squirm. He has previously compared deaths from Covid to deaths from swimming, smoking and driving and has frequently compared it to the flu. He has also come under fire for interviewing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and validating some of his arguments.

Responding to this latest backlash, a source from Spotify which exclusively hosts the podcast said they chose to keep it online because he did not give a call to action to young people, according to The Verge. They have however in the past removed more overt coronavirus misinformation.

But people on Twitter had stronger reactions:

And it seems Twitter itself saw the comments as misinformation:

Overall, we’ll stick with the experts for our vaccine info.