Jim Acosta and Molly Jong-Fast Slam Joe Rogan for Covid Disinformation: Anti-Vaxxers Are ‘Easy Marks’ Who ‘Will Help Ratings’
Daily Beast editor-at-large Molly Jong-Fast rebuked podcaster Joe Rogan on Saturday for spreading Covid misinformation and speculating that President Joe Biden did not actually receive his third Covid dose on live television.
Both CNN’s Jim Acosta and Jong-Fast argued Rogan’s comments are particularly harmful given the large audience he commands.
“But this has been one of the problems, one of the challenges, that the Biden administration has struggled with, Molly, throughout their time managing this pandemic: getting on top of Covid disinformation,” Acosta said. “That kind of garbage you just heard from Joe Rogan there. It is so pernicious and we can write it off and say, ‘oh, this is just some guy with a podcast, he’s a comedian.’ It’s dangerous. Just so dangerous.”
“It’s so dangerous,” Jong-Fast replied. “And Joe Rogan is not some guy. He has millions and millions of rabid fans who listen to everything he says.”
She went on to cite Rogan’s use of ivermectin while he had Covid as an example of disinformation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explicitly advises against using the drug to treat Covid, as has not been proven to be safe or effective at treating Covid-19.
Jong-Fast has previously pointed out that Rogan also used monoclonal antibodies — which is an FDA-approved treatment for Covid-19 — and likely helped his recovery.
He likely “recovered because of the monoclonal antibody therapy but he’s defending the deworming drug because that’s the right wing talking point,” she tweeted in early September.
“He is actually probably one of the leading sources of this kind of disinformation,” Jong-Fast said Saturday. “…When he got Covid, he got the monoclonal antibodies but he also took the horse dewormer that you can use for lice, ivermectin. And he spread a lot of disinformation.”
“It’s really tragic and we still have people in the South dying in large numbers because they refuse to take the vaccine,” she continued. “And you know, I think that it’s because people like Joe Rogan see these anti-vaxxers as easy marks.”
She added: “And he knows it will help ratings, but ultimately, it will kill people. I mean not getting vaccinated leads to higher levels of death with this virus, and it’s really tragic.”
Acosta then commented that he wished Rogan “would just knock it off” because “it’s not worth it.”
Watch above, via CNN
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