Last week, Joe Rogan offered “vaccine expert” and Baylor College of Medicine Professor Peter Hotez $100,000 to the charity of his choice if he debates 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the efficacy of vaccines. The offer came after Hotez accused Rogan, RFK Jr., and Spotify of spreading “vaccine misinformation” via Rogan’s podcast last week.
During the podcast, which has reportedly been censored by YouTube, RFK Jr. drew attention to flawed vaccine studies and the fact that consumers cannot sue vaccine manufacturers, which encourages the approval of poorly vetted vaccines. He also called for further evaluation of vaccines’ cost-benefit and attacked the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is supposed to protect consumers, claiming the FDA is in bed with vaccine manufacturers.
Instead of accepting Rogan’s challenge, Hotez is refusing to debate. “In science, we don’t typically do debates,” Hotez said in an interview. Hotez and others in the medical field believe they are above debate. Surely, if they are so confident in their opinions and the so-called science, they should relish the opportunity to correct “misinformation,” right?
According to Hotez and others defending his cowardice, the “Joe Rogan Podcast” is not the right format to discuss or defend vaccines with RFK Jr. Yet, curiously, that same podcast was the perfect platform for Hotez and others to spread authoritarian mask, vaccine, and lockdown policies over the last three years.
As far as we know, no other “vaccine expert” has offered to take on RFK Jr., either. Meanwhile, the usual suspects of self-important globalist billionaires, medical professionals, and, of course, the corporate media have joined Hotez in demonizing Rogan and RFK Jr. for daring to challenge the medical establishment and Big Pharma’s narrative on vaccines.
Billionaire Mark Cuban accused Rogan of “bully[ing]” Hotez and claimed Rogan and RFK Jr. are being “driven by self interest.” “The conversation was an orgy of unchecked vaccine misinformation, some conspiracy-mongering about 5G technology and wifi, and, of course, Rogan once again praising ivermectin, an ineffective faux COVID treatment,” lamented Vice.
Big Pharma and the medical establishment are not, as Hotez implied, above questioning. If the elites want to fight RFK’s alleged “misinformation” they need to directly address what he said in the podcast, and then allow the public to draw its own conclusions.
Covid Lifted the Veil
For many Americans today, watching the ruling class unite to condemn alleged “wrongthink” with terms like “mis-” and “disinformation,” refuse to debate while insisting “the debate is over,” and call for censorship triggers immediate distrust — as it should.
During Covid, the propaganda press, medical establishment, Democrat politicians, and mega-wealthy individuals such as Bill Gates promoted damaging, anti-science policies, such as business and school closures and mask mandates. If you questioned their opinions or their government edicts, you paid for it.
Those who refused the shot were expelled from their schools or fired from work. In Democrat cities, the unvaccinated were prohibited from attending concerts, movie theaters, museums, and restaurants. Anyone, including doctors and sitting members of Congress, who shared stories about Covid vaccine injuries or early Covid treatment, or discussed the highly credible Covid lab leak theory, was censored and even permanently booted off social media.
After years of gaslighting, the self-proclaimed arbiters of truth have begun admitting they weren’t so truthful. The mass closures did far more harm than good, decimating American business, stunting an entire generation’s academic growth (with hundreds of thousands of students still apparently missing from school to this day), and stripping Americans of fundamental civil liberties.
Covid lifted the veil for many Americans. We are much more inclined to question establishment figures and dogmas. Before Covid, the public was barely allowed to question vaccines, but they are doing it now. If the American gentry class doesn’t like it, they have only themselves to blame.
None of this is to say RFK Jr. is correct or even partially correct about vaccines simply because he deviates from the medical establishment. The lesson from Covid is not that we should reject everything the elites tell us, but that we need to search for truth.
In the age of AI, deep fakes, corrupt media, and globalist agendas, Americans more than ever need to be intellectually independent. We need to be wary of narratives. We need to do the work, follow the data, keep up on the latest research, and, most importantly, never lose sight of our own common sense. For example, when the establishment insists the Covid shot “works,” but vaccinated people are still contracting and spreading the virus, that’s a sign the vaccine does not, in fact, “work” as advertised.
What’s important to remember in the RFK Jr. vaccine debate is that no matter where you fall on the issue, it is the right of individuals to decide for themselves and their children what is best for them. Free-thinking adults have a right to make their own informed decisions without being banned from the public square and effectively unpersoned for dissenting opinions, as they were during Covid.
We also cannot discount moral and ethical objections. Many who oppose certain Covid shots and other vaccines discussed by RFK Jr. do so on the grounds that they were created using aborted fetal cell lines. Not wanting to participate in legalized murder is a valid reason to reject any medical treatment.
Ultimately, the RFK Jr. vaccine debate is an invitation for Americans to do their own research and a reminder that we should be wary of those who wish to silence discourse. In a free society, dissenting from the medical or political orthodoxy, for whatever reason, should not be grounds for firing, expulsion, censorship, and government-forced societal ostracization.
Moreover, asking questions should never be off-limits. Anyone who tells you it is is not somebody worthy of your trust.
Evita Duffy-Alfonso is a staff writer to The Federalist and the co-founder of the Chicago Thinker. She loves the Midwest, lumberjack sports, writing, and her family. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1 or contact her at evita@thefederalist.com.
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