He's said that mRNA vaccines are "gene therapy". They are not.
Context matters here. He compared the MRNA vaccines to more traditional vaccines where a strain of the virus is used. In the sentence where he calls it gene therapy, he says "I'm not saying that people shouldn't take it". His phrasing is sloppy but he explains what he means when he says gene therapy.
mRNA vaccines are not gene therapy. Full stop. Whenever someone uses the phrase "gene therapy" they're trying to scare you into not getting the vaccine. They're suggesting that the vaccine changes your DNA. That is a scary thing for people. The thrust of Rogan's message is: if you're old or compromised it's worth taking that risk, but if you'e healthy it's a big chance you're taking. That is a false message and it's super harmful.
Link
He's said that lockdowns make the spread of COVID worse. They do not.
There is definitely evidence that lockdowns do not make anything better and in many cases when looking at the whole picture of health including mental health, lockdowns are more harmful than helpful. Either way its a debatable topic.
Yes, there are tradeoffs with lockdowns. The good part is that it slows the spread of COVID, the bad that it negatively impacts our economy and our mental health. But that isn't the claim. The claim was that lockdowns make the spread of COVID worse. He's trying to remove the good part of lockdowns. That is the misinformation.
He's promoted Ivermectin as an alternative treatment for vaccines. It is not.
Might want to read this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8248252/
The jury is still out on Ivermectin. Here is the latest update from Reuters.
What's funny is that Rogan tweeted the Reuters article and then deleted it. The misinformation here is that Ivermectin is an alternative to getting vaccinated. It is not. At least with the science that we have now.
He's said that microchips were being put into people's arms via the vaccine. This isn't happening.
Again, context matters. He never said what you are claiming. He noted that Alex Jones said it on his show and Spotify didn't say anything about it. He mentioned it in context with moving to spotify and the freedom it has afforded him and his guests to say what they want. Big difference.
Here is the clip.
He's said that the government has been withholding effective treatments from the public. This isn't happening.
He questioned why there aren't more therapeutic option available and I agree with that. His point is that vaccines are not the only answer to defeating Covid yet the lawmakers and public health officials here acting as though that is the case. He's right.
There aren't more therapeutic treatments because none have proven to be effective. Vaccines are the way out of this pandemic. If you have other ideas feel free to share them.
Again, none of this is misinformation. These are conversations that cover topics that are complicated and are sometimes messy. You claiming that he is a public health risk and supporting shutting him down is precisely the problem. "I believe in free speech, but..."
All of it is misinformation. If Rogan doesn't want to get vaccinated, okay, but don't twist things to make your position sound better. Don't scare other people into not getting vaccinated. It's not cool. I support having messy conversations. Christ, look at that mess above (I have no idea how to make this look cleaner, I did the best I could), but we've got to agree on the facts before a healthy conversation can take place.
Finally, I did not support shutting Rogan down. I said that if I was the owner of Spotify I would remove him from my platform. I just couldn't live with myself. This assumes I tried to talk some reason into him first but that wasn't part of the pole.
