Spotify podcast host Joe Rogan announced on September 1 that he contracted the coronavirus after returning from a series of comedy shows at stadiums in Florida. Rogan has used his show, The Joe Rogan Experience, to peddle dangerous COVID-19 misinformation, including encouraging healthy young people not to get vaccinated.

In an Instagram video announcing his diagnosis, Rogan said that he was taking a range of treatments including ivermectin, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization, and ivermectin manufacturer Merck have all warned against using the anti-parasitic drug for the treatment of COVID-19. The CDC has reported that “adverse effects associated with ivermectin misuse and overdose are increasing, as shown by a rise in calls to poison control centers reporting overdoses and more people experiencing adverse effects.”

The Joe Rogan Experience is broadcast exclusively on Spotify and is the most popular podcast on the platform. As The Washington Post has noted, “With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, Rogan reaches nearly four times as many people as prime-time cable hosts such as Sean Hannity of Fox News Channel and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC.” In May 2020, Rogan and Tesla CEO Elon Musk minimized the pandemic's death toll with Rogan asserting that the coronavirus is “so popular that we’ve forgotten people die of pneumonia every day.”

Rogan has also frequently used his program to spread conspiracy theories and promote smears against trans people. After Rogan dedicated two episodes of his show to giving anti-trans writers Abigail Shrier and Debra Soh a platform to spread misinformation, Spotify employees reportedly threatened to strike if episodes of Rogan’s podcast were not edited or removed. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has defended Rogan’s dangerous rhetoric several times. Notably, Rogan has boasted that “Spotify has never said a goddamn thing to me. They're amazing.”

Rogan has recently promoted harmful medical misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines on his show

• On April 23, Rogan encouraged “healthy” young people not to get a COVID-19 vaccine, saying, “If you're like 21 years old, and you say to me, should I get vaccinated? I'll go no.” 

• On April 28, Rogan falsely claimed that lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19 “makes things worse,” saying, “It’s worse. It makes things worse, you know why -- because people go inside. They are trapped inside and that's where it spreads.”

• On May 14, he falsely claimed that far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was “right” about “actual microchips being injected into your arm to see if you have COVID-19.” 

• On June 22, Rogan dedicated an entire episode of his podcast to promoting ivermectin as a prophylactic and therapeutic for COVID-19, despite it being an unproven and potentially dangerous treatment for the disease. During the podcast, guest Bret Weinstein claimed that a study showed “ivermectin alone, if properly utilized, is capable of driving this pathogen to extinction,” and Rogan explained its use for prevention of COVID-19, saying, “All it means is to take the drug to anticipate that you may get it, so if you’re in a high-risk area you take it and it’ll protect you from infection.”

• On July 20, Rogan promoted the right-wing lie that the government was planning to monitor private citizens’ text messages for anti-vaccine misinformation, saying, “Have you seen the new thing about SMS text messages to stop COVID vaccine misinformation? ... Saagar [Enjeti] sent me this and we were talking -- Saagar from Breaking Points sent me this. We were talking about this recently. They are monitoring SMS texts for dangerous misinformation about COVID vaccines.”

• On August 6, Rogan fearmongered that vaccine passports would move the U.S. “one step closer to dictatorship” and lied that getting the coronavirus vaccine is not effective in preventing the disease, saying, “All you hear is take this vaccine that doesn't even prevent you from getting the disease, or you can’t go to the sauna or wherever the fuck you want to go. … If it was a vaccine -- it’s more of a treatment than it is a vaccine, really, if you look at it.”

• On August 12, Rogan promoted the baseless right-wing narrative fearmongering that immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border were causing a surge in COVID-19 cases, saying, “They are letting in -- so Greg Abbott, the governor, the great governor of the state of Texas, was correct -- they are letting in thousands and thousands of people who are positive with COVID.”

• On August 20, he falsely asserted that mRNA vaccines are “really gene therapy” and lied that it is “not logical, it’s not rational, and it's not supported by science” to advise people with natural immunity to get a coronavirus vaccine.