Joe Rogan and Bill Maher question COVID-19 vaccine and big pharma: 'I don't trust them to tell me the truth'

Bill Maher and Joe Rogan questioned the COVID-19 vaccine, pharmaceutical companies, and the medical establishment in general during a recent podcast.

"I also don't trust them to tell me the truth about what they put in there," Maher said of pharmaceutical companies and the COVID-19 vaccine.

The "Real Time with Bill Maher" host acknowledged that "we've come a long way just in the last 100 years" in medical advancements. However, Maher also asserted, "We are still at the infancy of understanding how the human body works."

"So don't tell me things like, 'Just do what we say. Don't question it,'" Maher slammed health officials, adding that they have been wrong "a lot."

Rogan tacked on, "All the time!"

Maher told the medical community, "You just don't know very much. That's not an insult. You just don't."

"So just don't tell me, 'Well, we are perfectly certain that this vaccine is safe,' or 'We are perfectly certain that these X-rays are a low dose.' You don't f***ing know that. You don't know what all these different things. There's like 50,000 chemicals we have in our body that we didn't have 100 years ago," Maher said during a recent episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience." "You don't know what the interchange of all these elements is doing to me and me personally, it might be different than you."

"Just don't have that attitude of, 'Just get it in you. 'Cause we are the people who know,'" Maher said of health officials.

Rogan said of pharmaceutical companies, "Not just that, but they're making insane amounts of profit from that."

"We're supposed to pretend that they've been honest about the risks of things in the past," Rogan continued. "Like that Vioxx tragedy where that anti-inflammatory medication ended up killing at least 50,000 people."

Maher noted that "hundreds of drugs" have been taken off the market.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Merck's painkiller drug, marketed as Vioxx, in 1999. However, Merck pulled Vioxx from the market in 2004 because of concerns about the increased risk of heart attacks and strokes associated with the use of Vioxx.

"Research published in the medical journal Lancet estimates that 88,000 Americans had heart attacks from taking Vioxx, and 38,000 of them died," according to NPR.

There were approximately 60,000 personal injury cases filed against Merck for Vioxx injuries, according to DrugWatch. Merck settled with a payout of $4.85 billion in 2013.

"Merck agreed to pay another $950 million to the DOJ in 2011 to resolve criminal charges and civil claims related to its alleged illegal promotion and marketing of Vioxx," DrugWatch added. "Under the terms of the settlement, Merck also agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of a single violation of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) for introducing a misbranded drug into interstate commerce and was ordered to pay a criminal fine of $321 million."

The outlet reported that Merck paid $628 million in a settlement to "resolve allegations regarding off-label marketing of Vioxx and false statements about the drug's cardiovascular safety."

Merck also paid $830 million to settle a class-action lawsuit launched by disgruntled investors.

Rogan was attacked earlier this year for remarks he made about the pandemic and COVID-19 vaccines. Spotify reacted to the controversy by "implementing several first-of-its-kind measures to help combat misinformation and provide greater transparency."

In the episode, Maher and Rogan also talked about how they believe the Democratic Party is "going to get their ass kicked" in the upcoming midterm elections because they have abandoned "common sense."