Joe Rogan under fire for suggesting healthy young people should not get COVID vaccines

Podcast titan Joe Rogan has come under attack from critics after saying that while he believes COVID-19 vaccines are safe "for the most part," he does not believe healthy young people should get the jab.

What are the details?

During a recent episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience," the host said, "I think you should get vaccinated if you're vulnerable," noting that his parents have both been vaccinated. "I've encouraged a lot of people to get -- and 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," he continued. "Are you healthy? Are you a healthy person? Like, look, don't do anything stupid, but you should take care of yourself. You should -- 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."

He went on to reveal that both his children contracted COVID-19, and "it was nothing."

Rogan's guest during the segment, comedian Dave Smith, told the host that he will not have his young daughter vaccinated for the coronavirus, saying it's a virus she "statistically has no risk from."

Smith added, "I'm sorry, I'm not taking any experiment on her. And that's my attitude toward it."

Rogan responded:

But it's amazing that that's controversial. That even saying that, I'm not going to inject my child with the vaccine, is controversial. It's crazy. Because again, we are not talking about even the flu that we just found out killed 22,000 people last year. We're not talking about that. We're talking about something that is not statistically dangerous for children. But yet people still want you to get your child vaccinated, which is crazy to me. Like you should be vaccinated if you are vulnerable. You should.

A snippet of Rogan's comments began circulating on social media Tuesday, and was quickly hit with a warning label by Twitter. His name also began trending on the platform amid outrage from critics, with some people even calling for his show to be canceled by Spotify.

One person tweeted, "I spent 5 days in the hospital and am still on supplemental oxygen because of COVID. I may have permanent lung scarring. @Spotify is trying to kill people with dangerous disinformation. They need to fire Joe Rogan immediately."

Another shared the story of a person in their 30s suffering from long COVID-19, and wrote that "@joerogan is a dangerous individual and @spotify needs to clamp down on this."

Someone else wrote, "@Spotify I like you but you need to stop supporting @joerogan now. If you don't, will happily cancel subscription."

But others came to Rogan's defense. Former OANN host Liz Wheeler tweeted, "Joe Rogan is correct about the COVID vaccine for kids & young healthy people."

The Spectator's Washington editor Amber Athey wrote, "It is a totally reasonable position for young healthy people to feel that the potential long-term risks of an emergency vaccine outweigh the risks of getting COVID."