Joe Rogan said on his podcast that healthy young people should avoid COVID-19 vaccines. Spotify reportedly has no plans to remove the episode.
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- Joe Rogan said in a podcast that healthy young people should avoid getting a COVID-19 vaccine.
- This contradicts expert advice. Spotify hasn't taken the episode down, and reportedly has no plans to do so.
- Rogan said both of his children caught the virus and that "it was nothing," likening it getting a cold.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Joe Rogan spread misinformation about COVID-19 in young people during a recent Spotify podcast - but the streaming platform reportedly has no plans to take the show down.
In an April 23 episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience," Rogan said "healthy" young people should avoid a vaccine, contradicting healthcare guidance.
A source close to the situation told The Verge that Spotify had reviewed the podcast but didn't remove it because it wasn't "outwardly anti-vaccine" and didn't include a call to action.
Spotify didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Read more: Spotify is worth $50 billion. These 5 key breakthroughs made the streaming giant a massive success.
In the podcast episode from April 23, Rogan encouraged vulnerable people to get the shot. "I think for the most part it's safe to get vaccinated," he said.
"But if you're like 21 years old, and you say to me, should I get vaccinated? I'll go no," he said.
"If you're a healthy person, and you're exercising all the time, and you're young, and you're eating well, like, I don't think you need to worry about this."
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as they are eligible.
Watchdog Media Matters first reported on Rogan's comments about the vaccine.
He also said that COVID-19 is "not statistically dangerous for children," and that both of his children had had the virus and "it was nothing," likening it getting a cold.
"But yet people still want you to get your child vaccinated, which is crazy to me," he said.
Currently there are no COVID-19 vaccines authorized for children under 16, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious diseases specialist, said earlier in April that he expected "kids of any age" to be able to receive a vaccine by early 2022.
COVID-19 can affect people of all ages
COVID-19 can infect people of all ages. Michigan is seeing a surge in the number of young people being hospitalized with COVID-19, for example.
Twitter has said it will ban users who repeatedly post misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, and Facebook recently expanded its vaccine misinformation policy.
The Verge's source said that Spotify has pulled a different show that said vaccines kill and another that claimed vaccines cause skin conditions.
Spotify has exclusive rights to Rogan's podcast. In September, Vice reported that Spotify staff flagged concerns to the company that some episodes of Rogan's podcast were transphobic. One staff member said that Spotify leadership's response to Rogan's podcast made some employees feel "unwelcome and alienated," per the report.
The next month, Rogan invited far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his podcast, two years after Jones was kicked off the Spotify for "repeated violations" of its "prohibited content policies." Spotify has since removed the episode, alongside 41 others by Rogan.
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