The majority of the 270 signatories to an open letter to Spotify accusing Joe Rogan of pushing 'anti-vax misinformation' on hi...
The majority of the 270 signatories to an open letter to Spotify accusing Joe Rogan of pushing 'anti-vax misinformation' on his podcast - with one branding him a 'menace to public health' - are not medical doctors.
Hundreds of doctors and scientists signed the letter, published January 10, that called on the streaming giant to adopt a misinformation policy after the comedian hosted the controversial Dr Robert Malone last month.
Only 87 of the signatories are medical doctors. Malone himself has an MD from Northwestern University.
Some of the other medical professions represented include: Dr. Christine Garvey, a Western New York-based veterinarian; Dr. Colleen Trecartin-Frost, a dentist from New Jersey; Autumn Schuster, a social worker at the University of California at Irvine; Dr. Gabriel Evaristo, a gynecologist who received his MD from a university in Venezuela; Korinne Bricker, a 'COVID-19 laboratory supervisor' at Test Well, which seeks to 'make COVID-19 testing more efficient and effective'; psychologists, teachers, and engineers.
A few of the people signing the letter also work on podcasts like Rogan's.
Bridget Scallen, an MS, credits herself as the editor of the Unbiased Science podcast, which calls itself 'devoted to objective, critical appraisal of available evidence on science and health-related topics relevant to listeners’ daily lives' and says it aims to 'dispel misinformation and misconceptions across an array of science and public health topics' like vaccines.
April English, an MPH and signee, is a contributor to Unbiased Scienced like Scallen.
Shoshana Ungerleider, MD, is herself also in podcasting; she hosts the TED Health Podcast from the company that produces TED Talks.
Alie Ward, host of the Ologies podcast which describes itself as a 'comedic science' program, has no medical degree but is a co-founder of the science communication collective Nerd Brigade.
Some of the other members of the medical academic field featured include physicians' assistants, a biochemist, nearly 100 Ph.Ds and Ph.D candidates, over a dozen nurses, medical students and public health advisors.
One such medical student, Forrest Valkai, also describes himself as a 'renegade science teacher' who has a podcast, YouTube channel, TikTok account, Patreon and merchandise store.
The nearly 100 Ph.Ds and Ph.D candidates largely do not practice medicine and many are professors.
A total of 270 experts and medical professionals called on Spotify to adopt a misinformation policy after Joe Rogan (pictured) hosted the controversial Dr Robert Malone last month
Dr. Christine Garvey, DVM, is a veterinarian counted among the 270 doctors and experts who signed the Rogan letter
Dr. Gabriel Evaristo, another signee to the letter, practices gynecology in California
Dr. Colleen Trecartin-Frost is a New Jersey-based dentist who signed the letter demanding Spotify take action against the comedian
April English, MPH, is one of two people who work on the Unbiased Science podcast who signed to the letter
Forrest Valkai describes himself as a 'renegade science teacher' who has a podcast, YouTube channel, TikTok account, Patreon and merchandise store
Spotify has yet to publicly address the letter or the controversial episode of Rogan's hit podcast.
During a three-hour and six-minute interview on the now-viral episode #1757 of The Joe Rogan Experience, Malone compared the US to Nazi Germany and said today's society was suffering from a 'mass formation psychosis' over the use of vaccines.
He also claimed to be part of the team that invented the mRNA technology used in the Covid-19 jab and said pharmaceutical companies administering vaccines - such as Pfizer and Moderna - have 'financial conflicts of interest'.
The hundreds of medical professionals claim to have fact-checked Malone and demanded accountability from Spotify - which spent a reported $100million on exclusive streaming rights to the Joe Rogan Experience last year.
In an open letter, they said: 'With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world's largest podcast and has tremendous influence.
During a three-hour and six-minute interview on the now-viral episode #1757 of The Joe Rogan Experience, Malone (pictured on the show) compared the US to Nazi Germany and said today's society was suffering from a 'mass formation psychosis' over the use of vaccines
'Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.'
The letter claims Rogan has a penchant for 'broadcasting misinformation, particularly regarding the COVID-19 pandemic' and that the episode with Malone promoted 'baseless conspiracy theories', including 'an unfounded theory that societal leaders have 'hypnotized the public'.'
The letter added: 'Dr. Malone is one of two recent JRE guests who has compared pandemic policies to the Holocaust.
'These actions are not only objectionable and offensive, but also medically and culturally dangerous.'
In the episode, posted on New Year's Eve, Malone, 61, said: 'It was from, basically, European intellectual inquiry into what the heck happened in Germany in the 20s and 30s. Very intelligent, highly educated population, and they went barking mad.
'And how did that happen? The answer is mass formation psychosis. When you have a society that has become decoupled from each other, and has free floating anxiety, in a sense that things don't make sense. We can't understand it.
'And then their attention gets focused by a leader or series of events on one small point, just like hypnosis. They literally become hypnotized and can be led anywhere.'
Streaming giant YouTube removed the episode from its platform, while Malone's Twitter account - which had amassed 500,000 followers - was suspended hours before appearing on the show for 'violating' its rules.
The episode was still available on Spotify as of January 19. Dailymail.com has contacted Spotify and the Joe Rogan Experience for comment.
Dr. Katrine Wallace, who signed the letter, branded Rogan a 'menace to public health', adding that she condemned giving people like Malone a platform.
She told Rolling Stone that his claims 'are fringe ideas not backed in science.'
She added: '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.'
Dr. Ben Rein, a neuroscientist at Stanford University who co-authored the letter, added: 'People who don’t have the scientific or medical background to recognize 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.'
In the podcast episode, Rogan talked about Malone's ban from Twitter, which happened just one day before the podcast was released.
'They removed you for not going along with whatever the tech narrative is because tech clearly has a censorship agenda when it comes to Covid in terms of treatment, in terms of whether or not you are promoting what they would call 'vaccine hesitancy' - they can ban you for that,' Rogan said, adding that Malone is 'one of the most qualified people in the world to talk about vaccines'.
Malone responded by questioning: 'If it's not okay for me to be a part of the conversation even though I'm pointing out scientific facts that may be inconvenient, then who is?
'Whether or not I'm factually correct or not - and I freely admit no one's perfect. I'm not perfect. It's one of my core points is people should think for themselves.'
'And I try really hard to give people the information and help them to think, not to tell them what to think,' the doctor added, pointing out that 'no one can debate the dispute that I played a major role in the creation of this tech'.
Malone later alleged on the podcast that many of the pharmaceutical companies administering vaccines - such as Pfizer and Moderna - have 'financial conflicts of interest'.
In what appeared to be an effort to establish his credibility, Malone reassured: 'I think I'm the only one that doesn't. I'm not getting any money out of this.'
Meanwhile, as the creator of the mRNA technology used in Covid vaccines, many questioned why Malone would then speak so strongly against getting jabbed.
Malone claimed the answer was simply 'because it's the right thing to do'.
He said: 'For me, the reason is: Because what's happening is not right. It's destroying my profession, it's destroying the practice of medicine worldwide, it's destroying public health in medicine.'
He continued: 'I'm a vaccinologist. I've spent 30 years developing vaccine. A stupid amount of education learning how to do it and what the rules are.
'And for me, I'm personally offended by watching my discipline get destroyed for no good reason at all except, apparently, financial incentives, and - I don't know - political a**-covering'.
The controversial doctor also offered his expertise on the government's Covid-19 response.
'Our government is out of control,' he said, adding: 'They are lawless. They completely disregard bioethics. They completely disregard the federal common rule. they have broken all the rules that I know of - that I have been trained on for years and years and years.'
He went on to say that government-imposed vaccine mandates 'are explicitly illegal' as they do not align with the Nuremberg Code and the Belmont Report.
Streaming giant YouTube removed the episode from its platform, while Malone's Twitter account - which had amassed 500,000 followers - was suspended hours before appearing on the show
The 61-year-old doctor's account was suspended and Twitter cited a violation of the platform's rules
According to a research team at the University of North Carolina, the Nuremberg Code is a ten-point system determining what medical experimentation is justifiable on human subjects.
Similarly, the Belmont Report established basic ethical principles to guide medical research involving human subjects, as stated by the US Department of Health & Human Resources (HHS).
'They are explicitly illegal and they don't care,' Malone reiterated.
It is not the first time Rogan has courted controversy over comments made about Covid on his podcast.
Last April he seemed to discouragedyoung people from getting the vaccine, saying in a conversation with comedian Dave Smith: 'If you’re like 21 years old, and you say to me, "Should I get vaccinated?" I’ll go no.'
Rogan, who caught Covid himself, also promoted taking ivermectin, despite no evidence proving it works to treat Covid.
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