It has been a year of terrible takes on Covid-19. Despite the presumed universal goal of getting through this pandemic sooner rather than later, a surprising number of Americans have lent their voices and platforms to conspiratorial thinking, rumors and medical myths. Enter comedian and self-styled thought leader Joe Rogan, who, honestly, nobody asked but has nonetheless weighed in with harmful and misinformed opinions about whether young people should be vaccinated against Covid-19. Rogan may play for laughs on his podcast, but none of this is funny.

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Rogan runs one of the most popular Spotify podcasts, getting tens of millions of downloads every month. In his episode Tuesday, he said that if asked, he would tell healthy young people not to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Noting first that he believes that vaccines are safe, Rogan argued that being young, exercising and eating healthily make the coronavirus (and coronavirus vaccines) a nonissue.

"But if you're, like, 21 years old and you say to me, 'Should I get vaccinated?' I'd go, 'No,'" he said. "Are you healthy? Are you a healthy person? Like, look, don't do anything stupid, but you should take care of yourself. If you're a healthy person and you're exercising all the time and you're young and you're eating well, I don't think you need to worry about this."

Rogan started off on the right track. The vaccines are safe. They're also highly effective, markedly reducing the risk of catching Covid-19, markedly reducing the risk of getting sick from Covid-19 and virtually eliminating the risk of dying of Covid-19. It's also true that the rate of severe illness and death in kids is lower than that in adults and that those with chronic diseases are at higher risk for severe illness and death. And "don't do anything stupid"? Very sound advice that we, as emergency medicine physicians, heartily endorse.

But beyond this, Rogan goes off the rails and into a sad abyss of generalizing from anecdotal personal experiences into the abandonment of pandemic-mitigation principles. He acknowledges and expresses sympathy for kids who have gotten sick and died from Covid-19, but not too much — since his kids had Covid-19, did just fine and were never "in agony." At one point, he even endorses the false narrative that Covid-19 is no worse than the flu. Based on his flawed understanding of the pandemic, he finally reaches the conclusion that healthy young people don't need to get vaccinated.

This conclusion isn't just misinformed; it's potentially dangerous.

Rogan failed to acknowledge that Covid-19 has already killed over 570,000 people in the U.S. — far more than the around 22,000 who died from the flu in 2019-20. And although 21-year-olds are less likely to be hospitalized or to die than, say, 60-year-olds who get Covid-19, their risk is not negligible. Healthy young adults and kids have suffered greatly and died from Covid-19, and this is meaningful.

Moreover, focusing on deaths is itself shortsighted. These numbers skip casually past the physical, neurological and emotional long-term effects of infection, even for younger adult

Most important, Rogan demonstrates that he lacks a simple, fundamental understanding about how infectious diseases — including Covid-19 — spread. They spread among those susceptible (i.e., not vaccinated). Rampant spread of Covid-19 among the millions of people under 21 in the U.S., if they remain unvaccinated, poses an enormous public health threat not just to young people, but to the entire population. Younger, healthier adults already seem to be the ones most responsible for Covid-19 transmission.

And as viruses spread, they not only can cause suffering, but they also can mutate; they adapt. The more they are transmitted, the greater the chance that a more transmissible variant or a more lethal variant or a variant that evades our vaccine-induced immunity will emerge. Some of those variants may have different epidemiologic patterns, including affecting young people more often and gravely.

Vaccines do protect the individual — but getting vaccinated isn't just about the individual. It's also about protecting everyone in our community, now and in the future. Indeed, a growing body of evidence suggests that those vaccinated against Covid-19 have a lower likelihood of spreading it.

Lots of funny people seem to understand this, by the way.

Why bother calling out Rogan's lousy take? His platform is enormous. Many people spend more time listening to Rogan than they do to health professionals. While scientists and doctors are generally more trusted, competing messages like Rogan's can be confusing and affect people's behaviors with regard to their health.

We don't expect everyone to be an expert. Still, those with influential platforms have a responsibility to be a little more careful and realize the ripple effects of misguidance and a casual piece of misinformation. A knowledgeable guest would have made all the difference — a celebrity message echoing expert interpretation can be a powerful reinforcement of the science. A little curiosity and humility go a long way, too: Acknowledging that you don't know why the CDC recommends vaccinations for younger, healthier people and asking the question of someone who does know would be helpful.

Indeed, this productive use of a platform is something other celebrities have already led the way on, from W. Kamau Bell to NFL star Patrick Mahomes.

Perhaps the best antidote to Rogan's comments is young people themselves. As Gabriel, a college student who falls in the category Rogan advised not to get vaccinated, told one of us: "Yes, I'd probably be fine if I got Covid, but I'd be spreading it to people who maybe aren't healthy and young. Getting it gives me peace of mind." (He also noted that news of healthy people who have fallen seriously ill — notably other NFL stars, like Von Miller — "really makes me question people who say that being in good shape and young will shield you completely.")

This feeling of responsibility tells us that the impact of Rogan's irresponsible statements may be mitigated by the fact that young people are, for the most part, savvy, diligent about Covid-19's risks and thoughtful about others' well-being during the pandemic.

Ultimately, the more people at every age get vaccinated, the greater our chances of getting the pandemic under control. Given that the vaccines are very, very safe and that we are all eager to get back out into society, the upsides fantastically outweigh the downsides. We are blessed to have effective and increasingly accessible vaccines. The response to early wins isn't to figure out how to stall out — it's to keep running and secure victory as soon as possible.

"Don't do anything stupid"? We stand by Rogan on that one. We recommend that people start by not taking health advice from his show.

Dr. Fauci Shuts Down Joe Rogan’s Comments on the Covid Vaccine

Podcaster Joe Rogan is facing an online backlash this week after comments made during the most recent episode of his show, The Joe Rogan Experience, in which he said that he does not believe people who are young and healthy need to get vaccinated against Covid-19."If you're like 21 years old, and you say to me,'Should I get vaccinated?' I'll go,'No,'" he said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, has publicly responded to Rogan, calling his words"incorrect" and stating that such a point of view fails to consider the bigger picture.

Speaking to TODAY's Savannah Guthrie, Fauci said:"Well that's incorrect, and the reason why is you're talking about yourself in a vacuum then. You're worried about yourself getting infected and the likelihood that you're not gonna get any symptoms."

"But you can get infected and will get infected if you put yourself at risk," he continued."And even if you don't have any symptoms, you're propagating the outbreak because it is likely that you — even if you have no symptoms — that you may inadvertently and innocently then infect someone else who might infect someone who really could have a problem with a severe outcome."

Of course, this isn't the first time Rogan has caused a controversy with his remarks on the subject of the vaccine. Back in February, he stated that he would not personally take the vaccine, telling guest Jamar Neighbors:"No. I mean, I would if I felt like I needed it. I just feel like if you maintain your health—and I think for some people it’s important, for some people it’s good."

Throughout the pandemic, Rogan has maintained a stance that getting vaccinated is a personal choice. But as Fauci points out, such an individualist outlook ignores the fact that we live in communities, and that the decisions we make about our own health during a pandemic are almost certainly bound to affect others.


"If you want to only worry about yourself and not society, then that's OK," said Fauci."But if you're saying to yourself,'Even if I get infected, I could do damage to somebody else, even if I have no symptoms at all'... that's the reason why you've got to be careful and get vaccinated."

Rogan has also repeatedly implied that healthy eating and exercise can be enough by themselves to protect an individual from Covid: however, boosting your immune system is not the same as having immunity from coronavirus.

But while he has taken care not to generalize, and has only spoken to to his own experience and that of his family—his two daughters had mild cases of the virus—the fact remains that Rogan is one of the most popular podcasters in the world. The extent of his platform means that even an offhand, personal comment will reach millions of listeners, many of whom are passionately loyal fans. And to say that they aren't going to be influenced by his words would be disingenuous.