Joe Rogan Experience Review podcast - The JRE review of 1261 with Peter Hotez

Episode Date: March 14, 2019

Dr. Peter Hotez holds an MD and PhD. His conversation with Rogan centers around the anti-vacers debate. There’s a lot to unpack in their conversation and it wasn’t easy to review without sounding stupid which I often do. If you have young kids that need vaccines or are having kids this conversation with Joe is one you don’t want to miss. Enjoy my review folks! Please email me with any suggestions and questions for future Reviews: [e-mail]

Hello and welcome to another episode of the JRE Review. Today I'm reviewing episode 1261 Peter Hotes. Looks like hostes, but Hotes. He's an MD, PhD, very smart guy, knows a hell of a lot about vaccines. So Joe knew this guy when Joe Rogan did his TV show back in the day when he was called Joe Rogan investigates everything or something like that. I really should know that but I don't. I never actually watched the show but I heard it was pretty good if you're like into conspiracies or just like those sorts of things. So anyway, he had a show where he like researched

looking for aliens and bigfoot and those sorts of things. And he had this guy on. And this guy was a medical professional. But since then, Joe wanted to bring him back on just to talk about more things and really found out that this guy now has a position where he adamantly opposes anti-vaxxers and he wanted to talk about why vaccines are important and how they're not causing autism and other things, so it's controversial issue for a lot of people. So let's start the review. Welcome to the Joe Rogan Experience Review! Where each week I review every single episode of the

Joe Rogan Experience. What more do you want? Okay, so, like said, this is a this is a big issue for some people and it's a very important podcast to listen to this conversation between Joe and Dr. Hotas because If you have children or you're thinking having them and they're around the age where they need to get Vaccinated and you're unsure whether to do it. This guy is the guy that you want to listen to, right? Because he's making the point that there's a lot of misinformation out there. And you hear about it, you know, I've met anti-vaxxers, I know people that have, and my degree is science-based. So I always try and fall on that end of things when it comes to making my opinions.

Like, obviously, therefore you're not doing the research yourself, but you understand the scientific process enough to say, I choose to believe in this for the most part. And the medical community, as a whole, is stood by the fact that they say vaccines don't cause autism and they're not causing a lot of other issues and you should have them. Otherwise, the world suddenly becomes rampant with all sorts of different issues and diseases if people aren't vaccinated against it. And it makes sense. See, I think we forget, though, what it was like because most of us didn't live through massive measles or outbreaks or polio outbreaks or all these horribly debilitating diseases that really

ravaged communities, towns, cities, kids' lives. I mean, it makes it hell. And now this doctor is saying that in large parts of Europe, a lot of these very curable diseases are popping up again because people aren't getting vaccines because they're worried. Okay, so the major bit of controversy and you've probably heard is that vaccines can give these babies autism, right? So where is that coming from? And on this podcast, you know, Joe Delves into that, because I think Joe in his own right has his own major concerns. It doesn't know. He doesn't have a science background of any kind. He's talked to very smart people, but trying to get an understanding of really what's going on is not easy. And he even has friends that are sure that after their kids got vaccines,

they started to show signs of autism and this is linked and it feels very real for them. So, you know, before everyone's just dismissed for being wrong, then these conversations need to exist. I think they're very important. This is a really good example of the type of debate that should get a lot of press. Not to say that an anti-vaxxer shouldn't have the right to get on the show and talk. I think all discussions should be had. But you also got to be careful about pushing an agenda that's not science-based. I mean, you know, you don't want to... in so many ways, because it's so unproven, it will be like having a crystal healer on Joe's podcast talking with a real MD about the best ways to cure

different diseases through medicine and all crystals. That would be ridiculous. I think a little bit of what Dr. Hote is saying is even having a debate with antivaxis is a bit like that. It's giving more of a platform to that side of the debate. It almost gives credibility to antivaxis, which he doesn't want to give at all. And I understand where he's coming from, but it's a dialogue that has a lot of people believing in it. They do. It's just the facts, a lot of parents, anti-vaxxers. This is why it's on the rise and therefore you need to give, you need to just admit that they have that room to speak

and let them get on with it. So maybe Joe will have a debate in the future. I think it's important, we'll see. We'll see. So anyway, where is a lot of the stemming from? Well, around the age that kids usually get their vaccines or many of them, because sometimes they get a few at a time,

it's also about the age that kids with autism start showing that they have autism, right? So Dr. Peter Holtz has autism. So he has strong feelings about this, but he also is a very smart guy who wants to understand what causes autism, right? I don't think he'd want to hide the fact that it was vaccines if that was the case. I think he's trying to find the truth and he wants to do it using medicine. So, what he's saying is now there are new procedures that use MMMRI and they can scan a child and even there's another operation that can look not in operation but a process that can look into in vitro like before the child is born and see that they are showing signs

that they could be autistic and then it's like a 90% predictor. So what they understand now as medical science is that they know that they can check for autism in children way before they get the vaccine. So they can't be a link. And then Joe's follow up to that, which I thought was quite a smart add on was, well, could they be adding to it? was quite a smart add on was, well, could they be adding to it? Could it be making it worse? Could it have some sort of effect? And according to this doctor,

he was pretty adamant at just about the fact that there doesn't seem to be any link. Like there wouldn't be a mechanism for linkage, and there's no reason to believe that there would be. Okay, so it's interesting in that end. And he points out that it's, you know, it's interesting in that end. And, you know, he points out that it's not a big conspiracy from big pharma, it's not a big pharma conspiracy. It's just that the vaccines are very important.

They keep all the children safe. And, you know, coming up with propaganda, in a sense propaganda against having them is dangerous. It's a dangerous move. Because it's going to make large areas of certain communities not be vaccinated. And they might be then subject to measles, malaria, mumps, whooping cough, polio, gardenos, all kinds of awful things that they could put their kids through. That would be completely avoidable if they'd got the vaccine. Now obviously I'm talking and it sounds like I'm super pro

vaccine. Well, I don't have any kids. I don't have to run this thought process when because I haven't been in that position and I'm sure I'd be a lot more careful and conscious of it if I did, right? And that's completely reasonable. But at the same time, it really does make a lot of sense. I mean, unless some heavy science comes out saying, this is the direct link between these vaccines and autism, it's dangerous for the child. I mean, it just doesn't make sense to put it in there.

And the real question is why there is so much energy behind the anti-vaxxers anyway. Where are they getting all this money to create all this noise about why it's bad? They get so much support and they have all these websites and even some politicians on board. I think they said a Kennedy was pretty adamant to get about vaccines being dangerous. It just seems very strange and they have a lot of lawsuits too. They're suing all kinds of people. So even Dr. Peter Hotez was a little concerned about getting sued himself. So he didn't say a lot about certain aspects of this, which I found kind of interesting, but also a little bit scary. So Joe was really encouraging and a debate on this, right? Get an anti-vaxxer in against this guy.

Peter Hotez wasn't really into that, but I think it's an important thing. And I also think that Joe is pushing for these because that really is the best type of discussion. Otherwise, all you're doing is just talking to one side or the other. It's always going to be massively biased and where is the middle ground in it. The only way to find that middle ground is to have those debates. And listen, long term Joe Rogan fans, like myself, don't worry, he's still gonna have plenty of individual relaxed chilled conversations

that are just silly. You know, I don't think Joe Rogan's gonna turn into just this debating network. It honestly, that would just get a bit exhausting if it was like five podcasts a week of debating. But yeah, he's trying to do the bottom of these things happening. And they kind of towards the end, they focus more on some of the major issues now and some of the big ones leading up not only do a lot of people in the world suffer from parasites, which is a really bad thing, and he kind of gets into that a little bit all the different types of parasites that exist.

Joe talks about toxoplasmosis a bit. We know that that exists, and a lot of people in Brazil, on other places have that, but there's also many, many others that he brings up, but also just the fact that some of the worst hit areas are not necessarily just the poorest countries in the world. Some of them are the poorest parts of the richest countries, and we're starting to see like a resurgence, even things like mosquito problems in malaria because maybe they don't have the best sanitation in these areas and the best cleaning and the best so on in these communities. So we're seeing these problems pop up, but the really scary part of it is Dr. Houtez says that he can get a lot of funding for certain types of research. If it's like tropical diseases for like tropical, nomadic, tribal

people, he can get money and funding, but as soon as he starts talking about the poor in Western developed countries, funding dries up and people don't care. And he's just not getting the help that he needs and it's baffling him. So that's a question, you know, that the answer yourself, why do you think that is? It sounded strange to me, you know, maybe it just doesn't sound as cool to say you're just helping poor communities, rather it's, you know, maybe it sounds cooler to say you're helping tribal people in the Amazon. I don't know, But it seems a little

fucked up. We should get some, get some funding and start helping these people. And yeah, what I took from this is, listen, you got to vaccinate. You got to vaccinate your children unless they get there some real compelling evidence that's scientifically backed up, this says it will fuck up your kids. These things are safe and yeah, they should get done. I don't know, what do you guys think? It's a big issue. It's an important issue, but anyway, guys, thanks for listening. As always, appreciate your BYE! you