‘He Knows He’s Wrong’: Elon Musk Dumps Gasoline on a Flaming Twitter Feud Between Joe Rogan, RFK Jr. and a Noted Vaccine Doc

Hannibal Hanschke/Pool via AP

The Twitterverse witnessed a free-for-all between Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Peter Hotez – none of whom gave an inch in their stances on vaccines and the implications of misinformation.

The blow-up began when Hotez called out Rogan’s recent interview with Kennedy, a noted anti-vaxxer who’s running against President Joe Biden to be the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate. The Dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College raised his objections by linking to a Vice article which decried the interview as proof that Spotify is no longer applying the publishing rules on Rogan they did when they decided to start putting advisory labels on podcasts that discussed the coronavirus pandemic.

Hotez’s remarks were seen by Rogan and Kennedy, both of whom offered Hotez a challenge:

While Hotez didn’t say yes to the offer, he kept the door open to a conversation with Rogan that continued to spill out on Twitter. Rogan called Hotez out for his “non-answer” about showing up for the proposed debate, and Hotez responded by defending his facts while rejecting the pressure to agree to the debate on Twitter right there and then.

Hotez also addressed a tweet Rogan called him out on for deleting, even as he dismissed claims of being a toady for big pharma.

“I’ve been hurt by the public/untrue statements you/guests have made about me being a pharma shill, when all I do is make vaccines for the world’s poor,” Hotez said.

All of this seemed to amuse Musk, who tweeted out fire emojis while watching the spat unfold. This eventually led to Twitter CEO’s claim “He’s afraid of a public debate, because he knows he’s wrong.”

Hotez noticed this, so he responded “Seriously Elon? This is monstrous. 200,000 Americans needlessly perished (including 40,000 Texans, our neighbors) because they were victims of antivaccine disinformation during our awful Covid delta/BA.1 waves in 2021-22. Please don’t do this…”

Let’s remember what this is about, not a small number of Americans lost their lives from antivaccine disinformation during the pandemic. 200,000 Americans perished, 40,000 from my State of Texas I have nothing personal vs Joe, Elon, RFK Jr. Just hoping to halt more destruction. Not easy to respond when those 3 gang up and tag team. Wish I could be more eloquent and clever when the moment demands, but there you are…

And it just kept going and going:

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