Joe Rogan Rips Justin Trudeau, Canada, NYC, Covid-19 Precautions, Despite BA.5 Surge

Joe Rogan is at it again, talking about Covid-19 once more on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Spotify. This time it was during a discussion with his guest, comedian Tom Segura, on Thursday. Rogan took aim Northwards, calling Canada “communist” and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “dictator” and mocking Canada’s Covid-19 vaccination requirements. Rogan also took a bite out of the Big Apple, criticizing New York City folks for still wearing face masks in indoor public locations. Meanwhile, Covid-19 cases and deaths have been increasing in both the U.S. and Canada, fueled by the spread of BA.5 Omicron subvariant of the Covid-19 coronavirus. Both the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Health Canada have been recommending that people wear face masks while in public indoor locations.

Yet, it looks like Rogan, as you can see in the video posted in Kipp Jones’s article for Mediaite, clearly didn’t agree with these two national public health organization. Is Rogan a public health expert, a medical doctor, or some other kind of scientist? Umm, not exactly. Remember Rogan is someone who said just last year, “I’m not a doctor, I’m a bleeping moron,” and “I’m not a respected source of information, even for me,” as I indicated previously for Forbes. Last I checked, “bleeping moron” is not a medical specialty. Musical artists have asked Spotify to reign in Rogan’s Covid-19 comments that have gone against established scientific evidence, including James Blunt providing the horrifying threat that he would release new music if Spotify didn’t do anything.

However, Rogan did not repeat any of these “bleeping moron” disclaimers on Thursday’s episode of his podcast before the segment where he once again talked about Covid-19 precautions. Rogan began the segment by mentioning what his opinion about Trudeau was before the pandemic started: “I just liked him. I liked him before the pandemic. I was like he’s a handsome guy. Seems sweet. You know, good looking guy, confident, good talker.” That’s nice. While “handsome”, “sweet”, and “good looking” may be what you look for when selecting a Tinder date, it may not be the best criteria to assess a country leader, especially during a public health emergency like the pandemic.

Apparently Trudeau’s being a “handsome guy” wasn’t enough to prevent Rogan from eventually swiping the other direction. Rogan continued with, “And during the pandemic, I’m like ‘Oh, you’re a [naughty word] dictator. Oh, you don’t like criticism. You’re trying to shut down criticism by saying all your critics are misogynists and racists.” If you are wondering when Canada had become a dictatorship, it hasn’t. Rogan was referring to Trudeau’s response to the so-called “Freedom Convoy,” truckers protesting against Covid-19 vaccine requirements in Canada earlier this year. The protests included people brandishing Confederate flags, flags with swastikas on them, and other symbols that don’t exactly ring group hug, as you can see by the following tweet from Marc-André Cossette. investigative producer for Global National:

A January 31, Al Jazeera article indicated that “known far-right activists who espouse Islamophobic, anti-Semitic and other hateful views were among the event organizers.” It also quoted Trudeau as saying then, “To anyone who joined the convoy but is rightly uncomfortable with the symbols of hatred and division on display: join with your fellow Canadians, be courageous and speak out – do not stand for or with intolerance and hate.” Not exactly dictator-speak. Yet, throughout the pandemic, a number of anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers have been using the “d” word to describe political leaders who have tried to implement Covid-19 precautions.

Rogan went on to call Trudeau “gross” and “a sketchy guy” and claimed that “He’s got some [bleeping] shaky deals. I would like to see where the money is coming from,” without providing any evidence that Trudeau has been enacting vaccination requirements because he is somehow getting paid to do so. R

ogan continued with “Why do you want everybody to get injected every four months? You can’t even get into Canada unless you are vaccinated.” Let’s be clear here. No real public health authorities in the U.S. or Canada has recommended that people get injected every four months indefinitely. Right now the most number of recommended vaccinations are for those who are over 50 years of age or are immuncompromised: a primary Covid-19 vaccination series plus two boosters.

Rogan pushed on with, “It’s old. It’s 2022, it’s not 2019.” Yes, that is true. It’s not 2019, which was before the Covid-19 pandemic started. It is 2022 with an average of 130,073 reported Covid-19 cases , 40,650 reported Covid-19-related hospitalizations, and 420 reported Covid-19-related deaths a day right now in the U.S., according to the New York Times. All of these numbers have been rising over the past two weeks.

Despite the reality that the U.S. is currently facing a Covid-19 surge, Segura then turned to NYC and wondered why people are still wearing face masks there. To which Rogan responded, “They’re scared, we live here. It’s a different place,” and then asserted, “It’s bizarre. They still wear masks indoors.” Bizarre? As I covered previously for Forbes, studies have shown the the BA.5 Omicron subvariant may be more transmissible and more able to evade existing immune protection than previous versions of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). As I’ve also covered previously for Forbes, there’s a preponderance of evidence that face mask wearing can block transmission and the spread of the SARS-CoV-2. With immune protection vaccination and prior infection not as effective against the BA.5, face mask wearing becomes all the more important.

Nevertheless, Rogan went on to relate how he was giving bleep to stand-up comedian and actress Ali Wong for still wearing a face mask. Yes, folks, it looks like Rogan was shaming Wong for using an evidence-based Covid-19 precaution.

Look the SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t care how “handsome” Trudeau may be. It won’t put it’s spikes to its mouth and say, “OMG,” because the virus has no mouth. And that’s not how it’s spikes work. The only way that Trudeau and other country leaders are going to save lives and prevent suffering from hospitalizations and long is to follow science and implement evidence-based Covid-19 precautions. Not doing anything wouldn’t be very “sweet” would it?