Joe Rogan had completely different views on vaccines and medicine 5 days before the US shut down for COVID

I’m in shock having seen this today (“today” was some time around April 2024). I thought Joe Rogan probably had a slow descent into an alternate reality. You know, he probably descended by slowly changing his friends circle as he gained more wealth and he ended up in an echo bubble, right? Or, maybe he descended by slowly changing his friends circle to science deniers after he moved house (he did famously move to Texas in 2020), right?

I’m not sure — I’ve never listened to his podcast or followed news about him. Those were my assumptions, but it really could have been any reason. Now, seeing this clip, and with the speed of his flip-flop in mind, I wonder if it was just the allure of millions of dollars — there was no slow descent, it seems.

That’s all conjecture. All I know is, this clip of Joe Rogan’s podcast 5 days before the US shut down for COVID has Joe Rogan saying vaccines are miraculous inventions, that we should trust medical science, and that there is a portion of society that simply tends to gravitate toward conspiracy theories, that they’re being delusional. Since then, Joe Rogan himself has brought on as many vaccine and COVID conspiracy theorists as he can, and then he has tended to agree with the delusions.

Yes, that’s the same guy who said we should trust vaccines and doctors before COVID, then brought on guests pushing Ivermectin after COVID, and who has started sharing wild conspiracies without fact-checking, such as when he shared a story that a “close friend” of his had experience with a school that had litter boxes for “furries” which embarrassed him when it was proved a hoax.

He has had an unsuccessful time walking back comments in normal interviews — people don’t stop believing the things he said on his show, even when he apologizes later. That’s why it looks like money to me. It feels like he knows what he’s doing.