A Twitter spat featuring Joe Rogan and Elon Musk taking on vaccine expert Dr. Peter Hotez raised eyebrows over the weekend. 1210 WPHT morning host Nick Kayal certainly noticed the interaction.
Dr. Hotez took issue with comments made by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about vaccines on the Joe Rogan Experience. After calling Kennedy’s comments “misinformation”, Rogan challenged the doctor to debate RFK Jr. with a $100,000 donation to the charity of his choice. Musk argued that Hotez wouldn’t accept the invitation because “he knows he’s wrong”. He has subsequently declined, with many — including MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan — noting that Hotez has nothing gain from the interaction.
During Kayal and Company Monday morning, the Philadelphia host questioned if the notoriety gained by medical experts during the COVID-19 pandemic has gone to their heads.
“I don’t know if you guys saw this playing out in real-time on Twitter over the weekend, but a lot of people saw it and we’re reacting to it. And my biggest takeaway with this is: It’s amazing to me like these guys like Peter Hotez or any guy that really gained any sort of notoriety or fame during the pandemic because they were like labeled the go-to people on CNN,” said Kayal. “They don’t want to debate you on anything. They just want you to say and take everything that they say is 100% irrefutable gospel.
“Isn’t that really the essence of science guys, like challenging theories and hypotheses and, and, you know, making people think critically about stuff, but yet when it comes to COVID, you’re not allowed to challenge any of these guys that were plastered on your screen for three years. I find that remarkable. And I find it remarkable that you wouldn’t want to debate a guy and oh, by the way, have $100,000 go to a charity of your choice for doing so.”
