The Fascinating Fallout from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast
And the troubling connection to Louisiana.
It all started with Robert F. Kennedy’s appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast - an event that should not be missed. From Kennedy’s vast personal experience dealing with industry corruption and government agency capture to the retelling of his father’s funeral procession across the country, the three plus hours is a fascinating glimpse into Kennedy’s life and advocacy. If you are new to the health freedom movement, this episode is a fantastic primer on vaccine industry fraud, and if you have been in the movement for years, you will likely learn something new about Kennedy’s life.
But it’s what happened after the podcast that I’d like to draw your attention to.
In case you missed it, two days following the podcast, vaccine developer Dr. Peter Hotez tweeted an article from Vice.com entitled Spotify Has Stopped Even Sort of Trying to Stem Joe Rogan’s Vaccine Misinformation. Undeniably a man of action, podcast host Joe Rogan offered Hotez $100,000.00 to a charity of his choice to debate Kennedy and clear up any claims of “misinformation.”
And from there, it was off to the races! We compiled some of the more interesting tweets during the exchange in this facebook post. The current offer to Hotez to debate is well over $2 million.
To date, Hotez continues to call into question Kennedy’s comments and character but refuses to accept any offer to debate.
Who is Peter Hotez and why do we care what he has to say, or not say, on this topic?
Hotez has long been known in the health freedom community as a vaccine developer and industry shill. Early in the pandemic, we were shocked when he testified before Congress about “immune enhancement” concerns involving previous attempts to develop SARS and other respiratory virus vaccines. We addressed those same concerns in a letter to our elected officials, including President Trump, back in March of 2020. Immune enhancement is an unintended consequence of vaccination that makes subsequent exposure to the virus considerably more dangerous. But Hotez quickly changed his tune and began to push the shot for everyone without any reservations. We shared a comedic video compilation of his changing narrative on facebook:
A 2019 episode of The Highwire breaks down Hotez’s first appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Included in the intro of the episode, is video of Hotez stating unvaccinated children should not be allowed in schools. We’ve added a brief clip to our social media:
That sentiment is extremely troubling to us and one of the reasons we started Health Freedom Louisiana - to protect and preserve Louisiana’s exemption law for school attendance so that parents will retain control of this particularly important medical decision for their family.
On December 14, 2022, the World Health Organization, an organization on the verge of threatening independent medical decision making on a global scale, shared a video of incredibly troubling rhetoric from Hotez equating those who question vaccines to “a major killing force”:
“We have to recognize that anti-vaccine activism, which I actually call anti-science aggression, is now becoming a major killing force globally. During the Covid pandemic in the United States 200,000 Americans needlessly lost their lives, ‘cause they refused a Covid vaccine even after vaccines became widely available and now anti-vaccine activism is expanding across the world, even into low and middle income countries. It’s a killing force. Anti-science now kills more people than things like gun violence, global terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and cyber attacks. And now it’s become a political movement. In the US, it’s linked to far extremism on the far right. Same in Germany. So this is a new face of anti-science aggression, and so we need political solutions to address this.”
What is Hotez’s troubling connection to Louisiana?
In 2022, a small group of people started testifying at the Louisiana Capitol against bills that HFL supported. The group always made pro-mask and pro-vaccine comments, placing public health before individual rights. It was very obvious that these individuals had bought into the fear that the government was selling. At some point it came to our attention that one of the women testifying, Jennifer Herricks, Phd., had co-authored several research papers with Hotez. One paper is linked below.
Knowing Hotez’s history of vitriolic comments, we were obviously concerned about Herricks’ intentions upon founding LA Families for Vaccines, a non-profit that receives support from Democrat advocacy groups. While we believe health freedom should not be a partisan issue, it has been apparent throughout covid that Democrats, especially in Louisiana, support mandates and policies that violate bodily autonomy.
On the board of the SAFE Action Fund (referenced in the picture above), which funded advertising for Herricks’ group, sits Dorit Rubenstein Reiss, a notorious vaccine zealot. Some of Reiss’ more disturbing proposals include suggesting police be used to vaccinate children when parents use a religious exemption and securing minor consent for vaccination without parental approval or knowledge, similar to treatment for contraception, pregnancy, and STD’s. She writes:
“We also suggest that, in the absence of legislative action, courts allow petitioning mature minors to consent independently to recommended childhood vaccinations. In addition, consistent with protections recommended for other treatment-specific exceptions to parental consent rules, we recommend protecting the confidentiality of minors who request vaccinations, both from direct disclosure of medical information without the minors’ consent and from dissemination of information by insurance companies that might cover the cost of the vaccinations.”
Does Herricks share the same radical views as Hotez in regards to unvaccinated children in schools? A comment she made before the legislature in 2022, where she stated support for a Mississippi-style vaccine mandate made a lasting impression. Mississippi has never had anything except medical exemptions for vaccination requirements for K-12 school attendance, until a federal judge ruled recently that the law is unconstitutional. Starting in July of this year, Mississippi schools will be required to accept religious exemptions.
Below is a letter delivered to all members of the legislature which includes Herricks’ and Reiss’ organizations.
LA Families for Vaccines is currently asking their members to contact the governor to veto HB182 and HB399, two bills that HFL supports and advocated for.
A reminder: HB182 prohibits schools from requiring covid vaccination for school attendance - it does not prevent parents or adults from getting the vaccine if they wish. You can see my argument for this legislation HERE.
HB399 simply informs parents and students of the exemption law. It’s almost identical to the bill Herricks opposed in the video linked above.
If you want a vaccine, get it.
If it works, you have no reason to worry about anybody else.
Please take this opportunity to contact your legislators and let them know how important a veto override session is to you!