If you’ve been on Twitter, by now you may have heard that Joe Rogan tweet-challenged Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, to come on to his Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) podcast and debate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Soon after Rogan tweet-issued his challenge, billionaires Elon Musk and Bill Ackman tweet-chimed their support of Rogan’s tweet-proposal. Musk even tweet-claimed that Hotez is “afraid of public debate.” Musk twit or tweeted this despite the fact that Hotez, a world-renowned infectious diseases expert, the founding Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and a Professor at the Baylor College of Medicine, has regularly spoken about Covid-19 and vaccines across many different public venues. All of this brouhaha—or perhaps tweethaha—does raise an important question. Would such a debate moderated by Rogan be fair? Would it even be worthwhile? Or will it simply further anti-science misinformation?
Rogan’s challenge certainly caught the attention of many legit scientists around the world who have known and worked with Hotez, including myself. The June 17 challenge came in the form of the following tweet from Rogan: “Peter, if you claim what RFKjr is saying is ‘misinformation’ I am offering you $100,000.00 to the charity of your choice if you’re willing to debate him on my show with no time limit,” as you can see here:
Note that Rogan specifically said, “On my show,” rather than “On any neutral platform.” It also seemed to shift the burden of proof from the person who had made...
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