 Throughout the course of the pandemic, Joe Rogan has essentially been a one-man misinformation machine, even going so far as to explicitly suggest that his young, impressionable viewers not get the COVID-19 vaccine that could end up saving their lives. Now, thankfully, after a lot of backlash, he walked back that comment, calling himself a moron, but after correctly identifying that he is indeed a moron, well, he still is spreading misinformation about the vaccines, downplaying the efficacy of the vaccines, hanging on crackpots to fearmonger about the side effects of the vaccines. And now, what he's doing may be the worst yet in the clip that you're about to see, because he's going out of his way to suggest that the vaccines might actually make the pandemic and the virus of COVID-19 even more harmful. And I should add that he's getting paid very handsomely to spread this misinformation during a public health crisis. So what he's going to do is try to lie to you about the science of the COVID-19 vaccines by citing other scientific studies. So we'll see what he has to say, and then I'll tell you why he's wrong. As legitimate articles, Jamie, I'll send this to you now. There's legitimate articles, because doctors have been sending me these things. And this is neither pro nor con vaccine. I'm not, this is not a judgment statement, but imperfect vaccination can enhance the transmission of highly virulent pathogens. So this is a scientific paper from 2015 that shows that if, here's what an important quote, vaccines that keep the host alive but still allow transmission can thus allow virulent strains to circulate in a population. So vaccines that don't kill the virus, vaccines that allow people, like this is one of the things we're finding out about what they're calling breakthrough cases. So people who are vaccinated can still get COVID and they can still transmit COVID. This recently happened at the comedy store. A vaccinated comedian gave COVID to like 12 different fucking people at the comedy store. Some of them vaccinated, some of them not. That situation where the vaccine just kind of protects you from serious damage, but it protects you from really being like badly hospitalized or death, but doesn't stop you from getting the virus can possibly lead to more potent viruses. So these people that are saying, oh, it's these unvaccinated people that are responsible for the variants. Well, there's actually scientific papers that point to the very sort of environment that we're creating by having so many people vaccinated with a vaccine that doesn't kill off the virus. It actually can lead to more potent viruses. Try finding that story anywhere. You're not going to find that story anywhere, Joe, because it's not actually a story. That article that you cited, but didn't read actually refers to an experiment conducted on chickens to determine if them being immunized against Merrick's disease would enhance the transmissibility of that virus in particular, not COVID-19. And he misrepresented that study so bad that one of the authors of the study had to come out and publicly denounce Joe Rogan citing his study in that mangled manner, he says, we're talking a very different virus and a very different vaccines. The details in biology really matter a lot. The chicken vaccines we worked with, the first generation vaccine definitely reduced disease, severity and death. But unlike the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, the chicken vaccine didn't stop transmission at all. And this is one of the key differences between what was being studied in Reed's paper and our current situation with the global pandemic. Those vaccinated chickens just kept churning out the virus for weeks and weeks and weeks. Again, this is a key difference. It's a very different virus from SARS-2. A key issue here is transmissibility. Evolution at the moment is all happening in the unvaccinated. That's where the majority of cases are. That's the majority of transmission. Every time a virus replicates, it can mutate. So the evolution is right now occurring in the body of people who are not vaccinated. Rogan is completely wrong trying to deduce anything else. Now again, that was the author of the study that Joe Rogan cited. Having to take time out of his day to explain why what Joe Rogan is saying here is completely wrong. Now, this author does address whether or not vaccines as it relates to COVID-19 can possibly make COVID-19 down the line more dangerous. And he's speculating here because he hasn't looked at that particular vaccine and virus. But here's what he has to say. Even though variants are more likely to emerge in unvaccinated people, a variant from a vaccinated person is still possible. Either way, the answer is vaccines. If a new variant emerges, we can get second generation vaccines. Read accurately points out as pharmaceutical companies are already developing boosters and second generation vaccines. There's tons of things we can do in the future. Right now, we need to vaccinate as much as possible. He pauses. I would be delighted. I have to say to get to the point where the vast majority of the evolution that's going on is in vaccinated people because there's only vaccinated people around. If we get to that position in a year or something, we can keep a very good eye out on what evolution is happening. But right now, the problem is the unvaccinated. I'm going to read that last sentence again. But right now, the problem is the unvaccinated. Do you hear that, Joe Rogan? This is the author of the study that you cited on your program and misrepresented because, one, you probably didn't read it. And two, even if you did read it, you wouldn't understand the implications of said study because you have absolutely no knowledge of this particular field. And you citing that study and using it to spread misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines is dangerous. And that's what the author also calls out. He says, the study was tweeted a thousand times last night according to our metrics, says Reid. I had a physician in England reach out to me on Friday asking me to clarify because his patients are using my paper to argue against vaccination. Calling it to question the effectiveness of vaccines was never the intention of his 2015 study. I am genuinely shocked. I've been doing work for 20 years now on how vaccines might drive the evolution of viruses. There's nothing in any of that 20 years' work that argues in favor of withholding life-saving vaccines. It's just shocking to me, he adds. There are 600,000 Americans dead so far. The vast majority of those deaths are vaccine preventable. There's not a single scenario that would argue in favor of not using vaccines to save the next 100,000, not one scenario. What it really gets me, apart from the fact that I do think this is a public health threat that people who are arguing against vaccinations are doing other people great harm. Apart from that, I really get concerned that this sort of disinformation or this inappropriate interpretation means that it's very difficult for us scientists to actually ask serious questions about how evolution might proceed and get a good look at it because we get this concern that our work will be taken and twisted. Those of us who are very interested in the way the evolution might go have trouble doing the work or at least talking about it because of the concern that people like Joe Rogan will twist it and use it in the wrong way. And in this instance, use it to spread misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines that are lifesaving. Not only are they safe, but they're effective. But Joe Rogan doesn't care. He just wants to push his anti-vax agenda because that's what his podcast is now. Spreading misinformation about vaccines and a virus during a public health crisis. And he also was condemning people for wearing masks. He's against the lockdowns and he's also against vaccines. So at some point, Joe Rogan has to ask himself, is he just on the side of the virus at this point? Because all of this misinformation that you're peddling is going to lead to people dying. How many people who listen to your podcast chose to not get vaccinated because of you and are going to die? Are you going to pay for the funeral expenses or the health care costs, Joe Rogan, with some of that one hundred million dollars that you make to spread this bullshit from that Spotify deal that you signed? Like, are you going to help the people who are actively harming right now, Joe Rogan? I don't think so. So you were correct when you said that you're a moron. So if you acknowledge that you're a moron and you're out of your league here, shut the fuck up when it comes to the virus and COVID-19 vaccines because you're spreading misinformation that is deadly, Joe Rogan. Stay in your lane. Shut the fuck up, idiot. Yeah. And I did. And I did. Recovery mode. My brain, I did. Recovery mode. My brain, I did.