Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban criticized popular podcast host Joe Rogan after he
asked Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine scientist, to debate 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-time critic of childhood vaccines.
“Trying to bully Dr. Hotez is ridiculous. You have producers that will prepare you and you get to control the conversation. @RobertKennedyJr also has a staff ready to prepare him, and these topics are what he talks about in every speech,” Cuban
said in a June 18 tweet. He went on to claim that Rogan and Elon Musk’s Twitter represent “everything supposedly wrong” with mainstream media (MSM). “You both do this on a daily basis. Dr. Hotez works every day to try to find ways to help people.”
“You are driven by self interest. Just like the MSM always has been accused of … don’t lie to yourselves and all of us and tell us you are different. You aren’t.”
The conflict between Hotez and Rogan
began June 17 when Hotez tweeted a link to a Vice
article that criticized Rogan for “vaccine disinformation.” The article discussed Rogan’s podcast interview with Kennedy during which the duo suggested that COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective, injuring, and causing the death of a large number of people. In his
tweet, Hotez called the podcast “absurd.”
Rogan then invited Hotez to a debate with Kennedy. “If you claim what RFKjr (Kennedy) 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,” Rogan
said in a June 18 tweet responding to Hotez.
However, Hotez did not commit to a debate. Tom Nichols, a staff writer at The Atlantic, criticized Rogan for asking Hotez to debate Kennedy. In a June 18
tweet, Nichols said that the debate “elevates the conspiracy guy, demeans the medical professional, and will only convince the kooks out there that RFK [Jr.] is right because a real doctor took the time to debate him.”
In a June 18 reply to Nichols,
Rogan wrote: “That would be a great suggestion if you could assure that the industry you were representing wasn’t completely captured by heartless monsters who have a history of some of the biggest criminal fines in human history because their deception has cost hundreds of thousands of people their lives.”
Mark Cuban then responded to Rogan’s reply to Nichols.
Cuban’s defense of the vaccine scientist comes after he
recently claimed that going “woke” is good for business.
“There is a reason almost all the top 10 market cap companies in the United States can be considered ‘woke.’ It’s good business,” he said in an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on June 11. “Most CEOs have enough experience to know to just wait out the news cycle until they go to the next one.”
His comments came amid backlash over brands like Anheuser-Busch and Target that promoted transgender ideologies through their business. Target had introduced controversial LGBT-themed children’s items, some of which it later withdrew.
COVID-19 Vaccine Harms
Even though pro-vaccine supporters dismiss concerns about the harms of COVID-19 vaccines,
multiple studies have shown that vaccination has resulted in significant injuries.
A study of more than 44 million individuals from South Korea who had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines found that 19.8 percent of all vaccination-related myocarditis (VRM) found in this group were “severe.”
“Vaccination-related myocarditis incidence was highest in males between the ages of 12 and 17 years (5.29 cases per 100 000 persons),” the June 2
study said.
“Eight out of 21 deaths were sudden cardiac death (SCD) attributable to VRM proved by an autopsy, and all cases of SCD attributable to VRM were aged under 45 years and received mRNA vaccines.”
A June 6 study published in the journal Pediatrics found that 104 children under the age of six years had
suffered a seizure within 42 days of receiving a COVID-19 shot. The children had received mRNA vaccines.
mRNA vaccines have also been linked to a higher risk of vaginal bleeding among females aged 12 and 74, according to a May 3 study in the British Medical Journal.
Authors of the study attempted to downplay the findings, stating that the research does not provide “any substantial support” for a causal association between COVID-19 vaccinations and bleeding disorders.
In an interview with
The Epoch Times, Dr. Shelley Cole, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Texas, slammed the researchers for downplaying the study results.
“There was a 26 percent increase in menstrual disturbances in the 1-7 day timeframe. Yet, they cannot draw any conclusions about a causal relationship with the vaccine? Maybe they need to think just a little bit harder.”
