The skeptical cardiologist revealed his immense respect for Neil Young and his intense love of Young’s ongoing musical creativity, range, and depth in a 2019 post entitled “Neil Young’s Harvest Moon Gathering Should Be Awesome.”
Here’s what I said then:
For multiple reasons, Neil Young is the skeptical cardiologist’s favorite musician. I love everything he has done from work with Buffalo Springfield to CSNY to Crazy Horse. His solo work is simply amazing.
I last saw him at the Fabulous Fox Theatre here in St. Louis last summer and at the age of 72 he was still mesmerizing as he ambled from grand piano to acoustic or electric guitar singing in his inimitable and still powerful voice and telling stories behind his brilliant iconic songs like Ohio.
He continues to create relevant and beautiful work to this day. On top of all this, he handles his musical catalogue with tremendous integrity. You will not find a Neil Young song in a Bud, Chevy or Uber commercial.
Therefore, when I heard about the benefit concert he was putting on in September I bought tickets even though it was going to be just outside of LA.
The August 2019 skeptical cardiologist would have been shocked to know that after playing Farm Aid in September 2019 (another benefit project Young has long led) Neil would be sidelined by a coronavirus pandemic for over two years. Young cares about his audience and has said: “No gigs planned until I am sure the audience is safe.”
Neil is passionate. He’s passionate about music and he’s passionate about the environment. He was passionate about the futility of war in 2006. So passionate, according to Rolling Stone he risked his life to say in song what he believed:
When Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young tore into “Let’s Impeach the President” in Atlanta in August 2006, they faced an overwhelming chorus of boos and raised middle fingers. The band seemed calm onstage, but today Neil Young says he feared for his safety throughout the entire Freedom of Speech Tour.
He’s long been critical of the low quality of the music available digitally. He felt so strongly about it that he tried to get an alternative and higher-quality music system going (Pono). Apparently, most people don’t care too much about the quality of the music they are listening to and Pono was a flop.
He’s also disturbed by the misinformation that is circulating regarding vaccine safety. In particular, he, like many were disturbed by Joe Rogan’s platforming of several individuals who are clearly spreading misinformation about the safety of COVID vaccines.
He is so passionate about this issue that he informed Spotify (which pays millions to Rogan to carry his hugely popular podcasts) that he didn’t want his music on their platform. Per the Rolling Stone:
Neil Young posted a since-deleted letter to his management team and record label demanding that they remove his music from Spotify. “I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” he wrote. “Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.”
“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” he continued. “They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both.” Young is referencing the steady stream of misinformation about vaccines that Joe Rogan has peddled on The Joe Rogan Experience. Last month, 270 doctors, physicians, and science educators signed an open letter asking Spotify to stop spreading Rogan’s baseless claims.
Spotify has removed Neil Young’s music. This is fine by me as I never use Spotify (although all 4 of my adult children have subscriptions) and I have all of Neil’s music on CD and/or vinyl. And of course,
Neil isn’t bothered by this. He’s never put the almighty dollar in front of what he feels passionately to be the right cause.
When I left SPOTIFY, I felt better.
Digital music has been with us about 40 years now. Digital, rather than reproducing copies of the music as we did back in the analog day, reconstitutes it from 1s and 0s and plays back data that you hear as music.
This allows business people like those who run SPOTIFY to cut the quality right down to 5% of the music’s content. It’s just math. It’s easy to do that with digital, thus allowing more songs and less music to stream faster. That’s because 95% is missing. Thats what SPOTIFY the Tech company does. SPOTIFY then sells you the downgraded music.
When I started everyone got to hear all the music. 100%.
AMAZON, APPLE MUSIC and Qobuz deliver up to 100% of the music today and it sounds a lot better than the shitty degraded and neutered sound of SPOTIFY. If you support SPOTIFY, you are destroying an art form. Business over art. SPOTIFY plays the artist’s music at 5% of its quality and charges you like it was the real thing.
AMAZON, APPLE MUSIC and Qobuz now deliver the real thing. SPOTIFY is ripping you off and has been since day 1. No goosebumps from SPOTIFY sound!
Switch to one of the alternatives – companies that support the arts. Real sound is available there. AMAZON, APPLE MUSIC and Qobuz You just have to leave Spotify and go to a new place that truly cares about music quality.
I met Danile Ek when he started SPOTIFY. it sounded to me like he was really going to be getting into it. That was a long time ago. I wonder what happened.
When I left Spotify, I felt better.
I support free speech. I have never been in favor of censorship. Private companies have the right to choose what they profit from, just as I can choose not to have my music support a platform that disseminates harmful information. I am happy and proud to stand in solidarity with the front line health care workers who risk their lives every day to help others.
As an unexpected bonus, I sound better everywhere else.
love earth
be well
neil
So, if you stand with Neil on this issue, here is your opportunity to stop listening to crappy music and discover better sources.
Interestingly, just a few hours ago Joe Rogan and Spotify indicated that Young’s actions (and others) have caused them to reconsider their approaches. This likely is related to the 25% drop in the stock of Spotify. According to Financial Times:
“I’m very sorry this is happening to [Spotify] and they’re taking so much heat for it”, Rogan said in a 10-minute post on Instagram. He said he would try to “balance things out” with “experts with differing opinions right after I have the controversial ones”. “If I pissed you off, I’m sorry,” he said. Spotify’s decision to keep the podcaster’s content spurred criticism online, where some social media accounts called for people to #DeleteSpotify. Twitter users last week reported that Spotify had temporarily shut down its live customer support, as users tried to cancel their accounts. Chief executive Daniel Ek said on Sunday: “Based on the feedback over the last several weeks, it’s become clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding us through this unprecedented time.”
And if you are a huge fan of Neil’s music consider paying $19.99 per year to subscribe to his website and application upon which all of his music is available to stream in high-resolution audio. The NY Archives also include The Hearse Theater, which shows all manner of interesting films by and about Neil plus off-the-cuff NY music videos made during the pandemic (typically filmed by Darryl Hannah) His immense musical output is organized uniquely with associated lyric sheets, pictures, and a helpful timeline.
Powderfingerly Yours,
-ACP
38 thoughts on “Neil Young, Spotify and the Spread of Vaccine Misinformation”
The one and only Rogan show I have listened to was his March 10, 2020 interview of Michael Osterholm, the epidemiologist from Minnesota. In that conversation, Rogan bemoaned people who were too paranoid to allow their kids to get vaccinated (against anything). Interesting he was pro-vaccine then but now is anti-vaccine. Perhaps it was a marketing move, there are a lot of anti-va people to solicit and it can be profitable. Rogan may be an authority on martial arts and tattoos, but not medical topics – and having a crank on the show who falsely claimed to have invented mRNA technology shows he couldn’t care less about accuracy as long as the dollars pour in.
Enjoy your newsletter, thank you! I’m against censorship, although these are unusual times. I wish a medical professional, like yourself, could clear something up for me: Is there any actual proof or studies out there that the Covid vaccine reduces symptoms if a vaccinated person were to get the virus? The reason I’m asking is that we keep hearing that it “may” or is “believed to” etc. Based on what? That is not proof, and it seems like by the time Omicron came around, Covid was losing its steam, so symptoms would be milder anyway! My son (not vaccinated) and his wife (fully vaccinated) recently both caught Covid and their symptoms (mild flu-like) were exactly the same! Another point is that these vaccines are different from the tried and tested flu vaccine in that they don’t use the usual protein-based carrier from a live virus, but the delivery method for the Covid vaccines is something or other that causes an alteration to our genes. So, different animals! You are probably laughing at my ignorance, BUT what I just stated is what we are up against — no clear, trusted or authoritative advice (especially from our govt), so we are left to exhaustively sift through everything ourselves. Can you blame anti-vaxers for confusion and skepticism about the vaccine?
I enjoy when you post things that have a more personal sentiment to you, I think it captures you as a person and is reflective of the story about your life, experiences and influences. Admittedly I peruse your blog for your knowledge on the heart, which I have a very strong interest in, but I also enjoy the glimpses you give in your blog of your personality and life.
One of the things that has made me not so interested in the discussion of Covid is the tribal or political polarities that seem to infiltrate the discussion. On one hand if you have any skepticism of the benefits of the vaccine or mask wearing(ie vaccinating children, young males and potential myocarditis, efficacy of cloth masks) in some circles you are labeled an anti vaxxer, a person of ignorance and a science denier. The ironic thing about this is that science is based on the premise of reproducible findings and scrutiny, not the adoption of theories based on preliminary data or this us vs them mentality. The same goes for the other side, in the sense of wearing a mask or listening to the experts on covid data, makes you a sheep or a “cult follower”. As someone who loves science, I have found the Covid discussion to be anything but scientific, with a lot of name calling and politicization that should have no place in the discussion. Unfortunately I also feel that the Covid discussion has been seized by opportunist political orgs to further drive a wedge between people. I agree with you wholeheartedly that people need to have more discussions and that idea sharing should be encouraged, but there is a lot of mistrust and anger on both sides making that very difficult. I also feel overwhelmed, I don’t have the time nor the expertise to sift through everything and to me its like everything in life, there some truth in what both sides are saying, I’m just not smart enough to know the real truth.
I was trying to track down a technical answer on Mr. Young’s statement “This allows business people like those who run SPOTIFY to cut the quality right down to 5% of the music’s content” I have seen several puff pieces quoting Mr. Young’s assertion of the reduction in quality, but I haven’t seen anything that resembled an explanation in technical terms of what he is speaking of. I have no b/g in music or editing but I was curious about this statement. Since you have a strong passion for music and maybe editing, do you have any insight into his statement? What acoustical music experience are we missing out on with this reduction and could this difference in quality only be heard with high fidelity equipment or it is noticeable regardless?
Thank you, Dr Pearson.
Thank you, Dr Pearson, for your honest appraisal of the situation. Agree completely.
I’m more of a Lenard Skynyrd guy myself.
Martin,
I suspect you like Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama (which, segueing into Werewolves of London, I played dozens of times 10 years ago in a band) which praises Alabama and calls to task Neil Young for his criticism of the state in “Alabama”,
Well, I heard Mister Young sing about her
Well, I heard ol’ Neil put her down
Well, I hope Neil Young will remember
A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow
Neil has expressed regret over Alabama, song which blasts the south’s history of slavery and racism
in his autobiography Waging Heavy Peace, writing, “My own song ‘Alabama’ richly deserved the shot Lynyrd Skynyrd gave me with their great record. I don’t like my words when I listen to it. They are accusatory and condescending, not fully thought out, and too easy to misconstrue”
That’s only a small part of it.
Basically I like a little harder rock!
Martin,
Neil can rock pretty hard.
Dr P
How about Neil gets to choose the outlets he wants to carry his music, and Joe Rogan gets to interview whoever he wants? Funny how the whole “misinformation” thing only seems to involve those on one side of the issue. Was Fauci cancelled when he told us not to wear masks, then to wear them, and then after 2 whole years never bothered to get any randomized controlled trials done to actually get factual data on masks and their efficacy (or lack thereof). Was Fauci silenced after 2 years of refusing to acknowledge natural immunity from recovering from COVID? ( I see the CDC just last week came out with a study showing the reality/durability of COVID recovered immunity). How about Dr. Wolensky proclaiming recently that “masks are 80% effective” ?? I don’t think she was talking about N95’s either.
What about the absurdity of keeping schools closed for so long? What about the insane lengths colleges and universities are going to regarding requiring vaccinations and boosters in one of the lowest risks populations in the country? Seems there’s plenty of misinformation to go around. Being an adult and doing your own research is a tougher job than most would like to admit, but I thought is was part of living in a (supposedly) free society. I was so glad to stumble upon Monica Gandhi, Marty Makary, Vinay Prasad, Zubin Damania, Martin Kulldorff, Jay Bhattacharya, and Sunetra Gupta early on in the pandemic. It was such a breath of fresh air and common sense compared to the doom gloom and goal post moving crap of Dr. Fauci. In my opinion he did more to foment anti-vax and vaccine hesitancy than any of the Malones and Mcculloughs of the world. I liked Emilie’s comment—I too am vaccinated (and had COVID twice), and also have some very good friends who will not ever get the vaccine. They are still my friends, and I support their right to their own views to the end.
Rick,
I follow most of the MDs you mention and appreciate their contrarian views. I have listened to the VPZD (Prasad plus Damamia) on the Malone/Rogan interview in its entirety. I recommend it.
They do their best to objectively assess COVID-19 options and approaches. They are science-based, reliable and often come up with differing recommendations from the CDC’s Fauci or Wolenski.
The issues you raise are good ones, worthy of discussion. The mandate for boosters at universities for young students in particular should be revisisted. We really need to a better job of understanding how prior COVID infection should influence need for vaccination or boosters. The science is evolving and those in positions of public health are dealing with a moving target, constantly new data and i think that explains prior missteps.
Malone and Mccullough, on the other hand, are so full of obviously inaccurate statements that they are appear to be deliberately distorting the danger of vaccines at a time when the scientific data is very very clear on their safety while at the same time deliberately hyping treatments which are very clearly not effective, throwing out wild conspiracy theories, and neglecting the proven treatments again Omicron like paxlovid. Malone has insulted all hospitalists in the country by saying that they are deliberately trying to prolong the hospital stay of COVID patients (be sure to listen to ZDogg’s comments on this infuriating lie.)
Joe Rogan can interview whoever he wants but if the net effect of his interviews on a platform like Spotify is to cause more death and suffering, Americans should vote with their pocketbooks to leave Spotify and listen to music from other streaming platforms.Dr P
How this deals with cardiology is beyond me. I respect your medical expertise. I could care less of your musical opines.
Phil,
Ultimately, the issue of COVID-19 hospitalization and death affects my patients, many of whom are at high risk. One of the few legitimate reasons for certain demographics to hesitate is the risk of vaccine induced myocarditis, a cardiac problem. I’m heavily invested in conveying the best possible information to readers and patients in these areas. Readers and patients should make their own decisions, hopefully informed by accurate information which I try to provide in a manner free of bias, politics or condescension on this blog.
With respect to my musical opinions, they are totally subjective, and I’m used to most people not agreeing with me, but as I research, write and curate this website without receiving any compensation on my own I figure I can write occasionally about the non-cardiologic things that bring me joy.
Dr P
Thank you for the post, Dr. Pearson. My husband has been “lyin’ in a burned out basement, with a full moon in [his] eyes since 1970. Good to see a principled stand.
I admire Neil Young for his music and his stance on social issues. He has nothing to gain by removing his music from Spotify but Joe Rogen and Spotify have much to gain from his continued rants which draw a huge audience. This is not about Neil Young or free speech or right and left values. It is about people dying. 2500 people died of Covid today and most of them died needlessly. Why Covid vaccines are even an an issue based on proven results over the past year is a continuing mystery to me.
Thank you for your post. I support Neil
Young, Joni Mitchell, and Brene Brown
who also pulled her podcast. Science is science, not opinion. No Spotify here.
Always enjoy your insight, Dr. P., but in this case I’m among those who completely disagree. I’m gladly vaxed but see tremendous danger in the censorship that is taking place related to covid opinions. The level of misinformation out there related to vaccine safety is not nearly as catastrophic to society as the fact that healthy debate about scientifically complicated and morally complex subjects has been shut down, both by censors and by self-censorship. Just look at what happened to the esteemed authors of the Great Barrington Declaration. And that was just the beginning. In other words, do I think my anti-vax, conspiracy theory relatives are nuts? Absolutely. Should they have every right to say and think what they want? Absolutely again.
Emilie,
I agree with you that it is tough for legitimately qualified and thoughtful scientists/physicians to talk about nuanced decision making when it comes to COVID vaccines. I follow and respect many of these. I don’t want to see any censoring of true scientific discourse. However on the two JRE episodes we had two doctors who are so inaccurate to the point where known and verifiable inaccuracies made up the majority of their statements (see my references below.) Thus, we have to ask ourselves at what point do we as society try to minimize the damage that these individuals do when their voices are magnified and delivered to millions of Americans who are not hearing or not listening to the voices of the vast majority of physicians in the US who are doing their best to save lives and keep people out of hospitals.
These two are not being silenced, btw, as they now have become conservate media darlings.
So, to me this is not censorship but just the attempt of a stand-up guy who happens to be a fantastic musician to have an a positive impact on the lives of his fans.
Dr P
p.s Maybe Joe Rogan should interview your relatives 🙂
My decision, not yours or Neil Young’s.
Absolutely
I admire your restraint in these comments. I certainly couldn’t pull that off.
Steven,
Thanks. Really trying to get conversations going to improve my understanding. It is a nuanced issue.
Dr P
Good one about the relatives, Dr. P. I think it best tho they stay hunkered down right where they are 🙂 Appreciate your response; my question is who decides what is acceptable in terms of opinions and their promotion of such? I was unaware of those deluded doctors that became celebrities via Joe Rogan, I’m not a fan of his and have never listened to his show. And of course it’s a terrible thing that so many Americans believe that kind of nonsense rather than look to their physicians or legitimate scientific sources for guidance when making their health decisions. But the reality is that countless other experts and everyday Americans are being shut down/silenced/cancelled because their stance on a wide variety of issues does not conform to the current narrative. The authors I mentioned of the Great Barrington Declaration are epidemiologists/professors from Harvard, Stanford and Oxford. They never advocated against the vaccine, rather their recommendation involved “Focused Protection” of those most at risk in order to minimize the societal harm of COVID-19 lockdowns. Their predictions regarding the catastrophic effects of lockdowns have largely proven true, yet they have been vilified to an astonishing extent. In fact just this week one of the authors was not only deplatformed by LinkedIn but his presence was erased as if he never existed. Likewise, anyone challenging the current narrative on the vaccine for children and masking of kids is uniformly attacked as well. This despite the established fact that masking has caused significant harm to children in terms of academic achievement, socialization and mental health, and children have an infinitesimal risk of bad health effects from Covid. So if Big Tech and the media and the government can silence and persecute anyone with whom they disagree, where does it end? Thanks again.
Emilie,
” But the reality is that countless other experts and everyday Americans are being shut down/silenced/cancelled because their stance on a wide variety of issues does not conform to the current narrative”
I agree. Very sad to see. And it exacerbates our ability to determine what voices should be silenced.
Re: the GBD authors and “focused protection”. Were you able to determine how their “focused protection” worked in the real world? What concrete steps would be taken? For the most part, they have received criticism on Twitter and elsewhere but otherwise have not been silenced. Can you tell me who was taken off Linked In? That seems odd as most people on Linked In, like myself, are just there for business connections.
You wrote “Their predictions regarding the catastrophic effects of lockdowns have largely proven true”. Can. you elaborate?
Re: nyone challenging the current narrative on the vaccine for children and masking of kids is uniformly attacked as well.
The contrarians on vaccines for children and masking of kids do get a lot of flack from those with opposing viewpoints. In this area , the science is not settled and I feel an open, robust debate is meaningful.
and finally, you said
“This despite the established fact that masking has caused significant harm to children in terms of academic achievement, socialization and mental health, and children have an infinitesimal risk of bad health effects from Covid. ”
You state this as incontrovertible but as one who follows the literature closely I haven’t come to the same conclusions.
can you elaborate on the the harm from masking? I would say it is nearly impossible to design a study which parses out of all the factors going on during the pandemic, the isolated effect of masking.
Clearly, the risk of COVID death and hospitalization is much less in children. But if they contract COVID and take it home to granny there are consequences. Such transmission makes “focused protection” as argued by the GBD problematic.
Thanks for the discussion!
Dr P
Becoming more politically based then medical. I’m done.
Scott,
Please explain to me how this post is politically based.
Dr P
Hmm . . .
You mentioned Joe Rogan “platforming of several individuals who are clearly spreading misinformation about the safety of COVID vaccines.”
The word individual seems a bit vague. These are your colleagues. Board-certified. Graduated from the most pedigreed universities in the US.
I have noticed doctors in general seem to not like going after each other, perhaps because they fear the same happening to them. There is generally great deference among physicians in my experience.
Instead in this case they are going after non-physician collateral, someone who is interviewing, or as you put it “platforming” (where did that word appear from?) a physician.
If this doctor is so deranged that Joe Rogan should be off the air, should this doctor not also lose his license? Should he not be repudiated by Harvard?
It’s difficult also for me to take Neil Young too seriously on matters of science when he dedicated an entire album to attacking GMOs. He’s also not the most pleasant person having used a horrible homophobic slur to attack gay people and his fear of catching AIDS from them from handling potatoes of all things.
He strikes me as someone who thinks he’s righteous but is just a bit indulgent in his misanthropy and parades it as righteousness.
I am happy to be vaccinated, and I am happy to hear from all sorts of people. Kooks have yet to keep me from making a decision that I think was in my best interest.
Neil Young got it wrong. The “misinformation” that cost people their lives was the silencing of conversations that may have helped us to arrive at truth sooner.
Removing people who were skeptical of masks means that people had deluded themselves into a false sense of security.
That means every person wearing a cloth mask in close proximity to one another was risking their health.
Silencing people like Alex Berenson who was following waning vaccine efficacy closely made people believe that the vaccine would protect them from COVID entirely.
That meant they were out in public with their cloth masks and could have been spreading the virus.
It also fostered an “us” and “them” hostility between the vaccinated and unvaccinated that bore no relationship to your likelihood of contracting or spreading the virus.
At every turn, we had a chance to discover the truth through meaningful conversation between experts, but @Twitter, @Facebook, @YouTube, and other social media giants decided that censorship and the labeling of dissenting opinions as “misinformation” was more important.
They were wrong.
People got hurt because of censorship, not because there wasn’t enough of it.
-plagiarized
Turns out I’m all in on Spotify now. I even bought a CarThing for my old truck. My wife and I have a duo premium account. The case has been made clear by Uncle Neil that the music quality sucks on Spotify. That’s a bummer for sure, but when I’m driving with my sub par sound system, or I have the music on a buetooth speaker, do I really need the best sound? For quality headphones, or on great speakers with amps it definitely sucks the quality is so garbage. Quality of the sound is not as important for podcasts, which I listen to most on Spotify. I know many small-time musicians who bemoan the pennies they receive from Spotify and that sucks too. It’s kinda curious that Neil suggests I go to Amazon or Apple, massive companies who give me plenty of reasons to feel dirty about spending my money with them. It’s good they are putting out 100% quality sound though. I tried Amazon music…I left. From an intuitive, flow, organizational standpoint Spotify is a heck of a good App. I support what Neil is doing. I also listen to Rogan (gasp) from time to time. He actually does have great guests on there. I’ve discovered some incredible humans doing incredible and good things through his show.
If you wanted to brainwash someone, you just give them the same information over and over and over again. So now, we have many multiple channels on television that do that. And if you watch one, you get slanted one way. If you watch the other, you get slanted the other way. So you’ve got to move around the variety to keep it balanced.
Joe Rogan is but one medium, keeping it balanced.
BTW, if you disagree with the first paragraph, take it up with Neil Young.
His words from the RS interview during the “Freedom of Speech Tour”
I applaud Neil, Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren and other artists for their stance against Spotify and Joe Rogan. I expect more artists to follow. I too love Buffalo Springfield, CSN&Y and his solo works with Crazy Horse. I stream them all off Tidal and in their HiRes format when available. I hope Neil will have his content on Tidal available in MQA (Tidal Masters) format in the future as MQA was never offered on Spotify. MQA is stunning compared to normal digital formats if one’s entire audio playback system is revealing enough to capture its fine detail and dynamic range and capable of decoding MQA.
Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify reportedly paid Rogan $100 million for exclusivity for his content. If Ek pills Rogan’s content off of of Spotify he likely won’t recoup his investment. He put himself between a rock and a hard place. Too bad. https://apple.news/A7rKTDL_nSaeo8iBbu_w49w
Here is how to cancel one’s Spotify account. https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/ready-to-cancel-spotify-heres-how-to-quit-your-premium-subscription/
I enjoy your posts and agree with most of them however this time I simply don’t. Neil Young wrote a song called “Rocking in the Free World” but now he doesn’t like free speech so he is taking his songs off Spotify because Joe Rogan has an alternative view. He picked up his toys and went home.Think about it. How much misinformation has the government given us? . Masks don’t work. Masks do work. Now cloth masks don’t work. One shot works . No you need two. No you need three. BTW they are only effective for a few months.The virus came from a bat. Well no maybe it came from a lab. Vaccines have no side effects. Well some people might have side effects. Wash your hands, don’t bother washing your hands. We can go on and on. The government has given plenty of misinformation. Joe Rogan did nothing wrong. BTW he has also had “mainstream” experts from the medical community on his podcasts so he entertained all side of the issue. Let’s be fair and let’s stop playing victim Neil. The biggest problem I see is not that people have differing opinions but that the government and the medical community were not prepared for dealing Covid 19 and got caught with their pants down.
tony,
Thanks for your comments. Here’s my take on the issues that lead to physicians writing a letter to Spotify and Neil and other musicians leaving Spotify.
Rogan platformed two individuals with medical credentials who have been lauded and promoted by anti-vaccine advocates despite the fact that they present vast amounts of totally inaccurate statements about COVID vaccines:Peter MCcullough and Robert Malone
Science Feedback , a nonprofit with the purpose of improve the credibility of science-related information online, in the media and on social media. The association notably acts through:
the organizing of scientists’ response to influential information by verifying facts and scientific theories,
goes through in detail the many inaccurate statements of Mcullough here
https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/joe-rogan-interview-with-peter-mccullough-contains-multiple-false-and-unsubstantiated-claims-about-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-vaccines/
and Malone here
https://sciencefeedback.co/claimreview/robert-malone-misleading-unsubstantiated-claims-covid-19-safety-efficacy-vaccines-joe-rogan-experience-spotify-podcast/
I also recommend you listed to the VPZD podcast of two physicians who consider themselves “alt-middle” as they discuss the Malone/Rogan Spotify podcast and go step by step through what Malone said and how Rogan failed to counter numerous wildly inaccurate statements from Malone.
Undoubtedly, the promulgation of these inaccurate statements fostering fear of the COVID vaccines has contributed to the high percentage of Americans who elected not to get vaccinated, thousands of whom have, as a result died from COVID
Yes, the CDC , in retrospect has not always been on the mark in its recommendatons but it is always making a legitimate effort to look at the science as it evolves and change its recommendations accordingly.
There is definitely room to have legitimate scientific debate on many topics in this area including mandates, boosters, vaccines in young men, etc. but these two individuals are not involved in legitimate scientific debate on nuanced issues t
And, btw, Neil is not “playing victim”. He’s proud of the fact that he is not on Spotify.
Dr P
Thanks for the Science Feedback links Dr. P! Just what the Dr. ordered for a few conversations I have going out there. Plus, it looks like a top-notch science information hub for assorted topics.
RE,
My pleasure.
I’m glad you are having conversations. We need lots of those.
Dr P
Thank-you for your thoughtful reply. I don’t necessarily agree with Joe Rogan on many issues and I am not ant–vacine.I’m triple vaccinated BTW. But I must defend his right to present his opinion and biases and my right to listen to my choices on Spotify, music or otherwise. Attacking Spotify is kind of hypocritical when you have others like Amazon who are selling books purporting the same principles as some of Rogan’s guests and I’m not hearing any clamor about that (yet). What’s the difference? Are we going to ban books next? I mean we do live in a free society or so I thought. We need to educate ourselves on issues and not let one source sway us. Unfortunately that does happen with the less informed.
NY and CH have been the soundtrack of my life since my medical school daze.
Keep on rockin’