Joe Rogan touts vaccine safety on his Spotify podcast but discourages shots for young people

Joe Rogan, one of the world’s highest-paid and most popular podcast hosts, told listeners that if a 21-year-old asked him if they should get vaccinated, he would suggest no.

On his Spotify exclusive podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan said, “People say, do you think it’s safe to get vaccinated? I’ve said, yeah, I think for the most part it’s safe to get vaccinated. I do. I do. But 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?”

“If you’re a healthy person, and you’re exercising all the time, and you’re young, and you’re eating well,” Rogan continued, “like, I don’t think you need to worry about this.”

The politically left-leaning advocacy group, Media Matters, took issue and brought attention to the podcast episode on Tuesday, which was released on April 23.

Since signing Rogan to a licensing deal reportedly worth more than $100 million, Spotify is no stranger to controversy spurred by the star’s remarks. Rogan apologized in September for spreading misinformation about the West Coast fires.

Spotify did not respond to a request for comment about Rogan’s recent episode.

Rogan, who was speaking with comedian Dave Smith on the episode, said his children both got Covid-19 but had minor symptoms.

“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,” Rogan said. “But I’m saying the personal experience that my children had with Covid was nothing.”

As Rogan acknowledged, children are not immune to Covid-19. In fact, more younger people are getting hospitalized as new variants emerge. And even if a healthy young person were to get the virus and experience minor symptoms, they still risk spreading the disease.