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A letter signed by 270 “doctors,” as The Guardian calls them, asks Spotify to “immediately establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on its platform,” right after the recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, where the UFC commentator and podcaster interviews virology doctor Robert Malone.
The controversy has come because of Dr. Malone’s skepticism for COVID-19 vaccines. On his website, he stated, “I do believe that the shortcuts that the USG [United States Government] have taken in bringing the mRNA and the adenovirus vaccines to market for this pandemic have been detrimental and contrary to globally accepted standards for developing and regulating safe and effective licensed products.”
How does the mRNA vaccine work?
Like DNA, ribonucleic acid (RNA) functions as a strand of the genetic code that conveys information essential to the functioning of our systems, such as protein synthesis (a process in which our cells create proteins essential for our bodies to survive).
mRNA drugs are a set of genetic instructions that are transmitted to the body’s cells instructing them to produce proteins to prevent or fight diseases such as, in this case, COVID-19.
Through a process known as transcription, a copy of the mRNA is made from a DNA sequence to create the protein. This copy (the mRNA) travels from the cell nucleus to a part of the cell known as the cytoplasm, which houses the so-called ribosomes.
Ribosomes are like micro-machine (organelles) in cells responsible for transforming amino acids into protein. In a process known as “translation,” ribosomes “read” the mRNA and follow its instructions to create the necessary proteins required by the body to prevent infection.
Who is Dr. Robert Malone Interviewed by Joe Rogan?
In 1989, Malone first patented mRNA technology, and in a 1990 paper with Jon A. Wolff and Denis A. Carson, he suggested synthesizing mRNA technology to produce vaccines to prevent infection and transmission of viral threats. Thirty years after Dr. Malone’s paper was published, Pfizer and Moderna developed a vaccine using mRNA technology to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prior to the interview with Joe Rogan, Robert Malone’s Twitter account was suspended by the social network, apparently for disseminating critical information about the leading vaccines circulating to contain the spread of COVID-19 that use the technology he patented.
Malone is also medical director of The Unity Project, a group of 300 organizations across the United States that opposes mandatory vaccination in children. Malone’s controversial interview on The Joe Rogan Experience was removed from YouTube.
The “doctors” who want to censor The Joe Rogan Experience
“We are a coalition of scientists, medical professionals, professors, and science communicators spanning a wide range of fields such as microbiology, immunology, epidemiology, and neuroscience and we are calling on Spotify to take action against the mass-misinformation events which continue to occur on its platform,” reads the letter calling for censorship of Malone’s interview.
Although The Guardian called the letter’s signatories doctors, making it sound as if they were all PhDs, the truth is that there are only three virologists. Ten percent of the signatories are practitioners or nurses and 33 are some kind of assistant (research, lab, etc.) These people are hardly qualified to refute Malone, who is the inventor of mRNA technology.
“By allowing the propagation of false and societally harmful assertions, Spotify is enabling its hosted media to damage public trust in scientific research and sow doubt in the credibility of data-driven guidance offered by medical professionals,” the letter states.
Within the missive the “doctors” accuse Joe Rogan of spreading disinformation about Covid-19 on his podcast for claiming that he used Ivermectin (a drug not approved by the FDA,) when he was infected with the virus.
The Joe Rogan Experience averages 11 million listeners per episode, surpassing shows like Tucker Carson Tonight, The Five or Hannity.
Economist, writer and liberal. With a focus on finance, the war on drugs, history, and geopolitics // Economista, escritor y liberal. Con enfoque en finanzas, guerra contra las drogas, historia y geopolítica