.ZeeshanAleem: What Joe Rogan is proposing is debate between someone who has respect for the quest for truth and someone who doesn’t.
In other words, what Rogan is proposing is a debate between someone who has respect for the quest for truth and someone who doesn’t. Hotez would be guided by an expert appraisal of empirical reality, while Kennedy would spread misinformation and disinformation about vaccines. How would that be edifying for the public?
It would be one thing if Hotez were asked to debate another vaccine scientist who had well-grounded and good faith differences in opinion from Hotez on the question of the efficacy of vaccines or the virtue of vaccine mandates. People could learn from that. But in the case of a Hotez-Kennedy debate, a lot of people would just walk away from the exchange having been subjected to a ton of spin from someone with an abysmal track record on telling the truth about vaccines.
Another issue is that Rogan’s podcast is a distinctly poor forum for such a debate. Consider how Rogan treated Kennedy’s outlandish claims about vaccines and other public health matters on his show Thursday — with constant. At one point during the three-hour interview, Kennedy offhandedly made the claim that Wi-Fi allows toxins to enter the brain. When Rogan asked him to explain how that worked, Kennedy said it was “beyond my expertise.
None of this is to say that Kennedy’s claims should never be engaged. He’s unfortunately polling well enough as a Democratic presidential candidate that the media, medical experts and political opponents should be prepared to refute his claims, particularly as he continues to evolve into one of the most prominent avatars of vaccine skepticism in American politics today.
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