Covid 19: 270 medical experts beg Spotify to ditch Joe Rogan podcast

NZ Herald

15 Jan, 2022 12:43 AM3 mins to read

The letter says Joe Rogan has a "concerning history of broadcasting misinformation, particularly regarding the Covid-19 pandemic". Photo / Getty Images

A group of 270 experts have written an open letter to Spotify, condemning the streaming service's top-rated podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.

The open letter was signed by doctors, researchers and healthcare professionals who all express concern at the shock jock's statements on his podcast.

The experts are calling on Spotify to "establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform".

"Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy," they wrote in the open letter.

The letter said that Rogan has a "concerning history of broadcasting misinformation, particularly regarding the Covid-19 pandemic".

According to Rolling Stone, the open letter is part of a campaign launched in part by infectious disease epidemiologist and research fellow at Boston Children's Hospital, Jessica Malaty Rivera.

Rivera has tens of thousands of Instagram followers and many have asked for help to debunk Rogan's claims.

"Mass-misinformation events of this scale have extraordinarily dangerous ramifications," the experts wrote in the open letter.

Rogan recently had virologist Dr Robert Malone on his podcast, who has been banned from Twitter for promoting vaccine misinformation.

Fellow signee Katrine Wallace, an epidemiologist at University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, told Rolling Stone that Rogan was "a menace to public health".

"Having things like this on the Joe Rogan podcast gives a platform to these people and makes it a false balance. This is what really bothers me," she said.

"These are fringe ideas not backed in science, and having it on a huge platform makes it seem there are two sides to this issue. And there are really not. The overwhelming evidence is the vaccine works, and it is safe."

The open letter also included a fact-check record of the controversial claims made during Rogan's interview with Malone.

"People who don't have the scientific or medical background to recognise the things he's saying are not true and are unable to distinguish fact from fiction are going to believe what [Malone is] saying, and this is the biggest podcast in the world. And that's terrifying," letter co-author Ben Rein, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, told Rolling Stone.

The outcry against Rogan has been happening for a while and Spotify has quietly unpublished several controversial episodes of the podcast from its platform.