The wildly successful campaign to convince Republican-voting Americans not to vaccinate exists for one reason and one reason only: To sabotage President Joe Biden. Propagandists like Fox News and GOP leaders like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz understood that millions of their followers refusing the vaccine can prolong the COVID-19 pandemic — and that Biden would take the blame. Sure enough, Biden has taken a hit in the polls; now more Americans disapprove of his handling of the pandemic than approve of it.
But while the anti-vaccine campaign is clearly a partisan movement with partisan aims, the single most important figure in validating and spreading vaccine disinformation is likely not Fox News hosts or even Republican politicians. No, that honor goes to "comedian" and Spotify star Joe Rogan, whose tedious podcast "The Joe Rogan Experience" inexplicably draws a reported 11 million listeners per episode — more than three times the audience for Tucker Carlson's wildly popular Fox News show. On his show, Rogan appears to be obsessed with spreading COVID-19 misinformation, as Alex Paterson, a Media Matters researcher who subjected himself to over 350 hours of Rogan's show, has thoroughly documented. Rogan regularly pushes conspiracy theories about the vaccine being dangerous and unnecessary, even dabbling in ridiculous claims that the vaccines contain microchips to "track" people.
