Mark CubanShark Tank star, billionaire entrepreneur, and owner of both the Dallas Mavericks and Cost Plus Drugswaded into a chaotic Twitter brawl about vaccines on Sunday involving some big namesincluding Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the worlds richest man.
It centered around Spotify podcaster Joe Rogan challenging a medical expertDr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicineto enter a debate about vaccines on his show. That came in response to Hotez sharing a Vice article from Friday entitled Spotify Has Stopped Even Sort of Trying to Stem Joe Rogans Vaccine Misinformation.
The Vice article came after a Rogan episode the day prior featuring Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a long-shot Democratic presidential candidate, political scion, andlike Roganhigh-profile vaccine skeptic. Despite his political party, U.S. conservatives have taken a shine to Kennedy, who wrote a 2021 book entitled The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health. Hes also frequently deplored the war in Ukraine, calling it a money laundering racket for military contractors on the podcast.
Rogan tweeted on Saturday evening, Peter, if you claim what RFKjr is saying is misinformation I am offering you $100,000.00 to the charity of your choice if youre willing to debate him on my show with no time limit.
Joe, you have my cell, my email, Im always willing to speak with you, replied Hotez, who wrote the 2018 book Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachels Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad.
Twitter owner Musk then tweeted, Hes afraid of a public debate, because he knows hes wrong.
Hotez replied, Seriously Elon? This is monstrous. 200,000 Americans needlessly perished (including 40,000 Texans, our neighbors) because they were victims of antivaccine disinformation during our awful Covid delta/BA.1 waves in 2021-22. Please dont do this
Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman unexpectedly joined in, tweeting, I will add $150,000 to @joerogans wager so now $250,000 can go to charity and the public can hear an open debate on an important topic.
Tom Nichols, a staff writer at The Atlantic, tweeted about the invitation: No medical professional should ever agree to do this. Never. It elevates the conspiracy guy, demeans the medical professional, and will only convince the kooks out there that RFK is right because a real doctor took the time to debate him.
Rogan replied, That would be a great suggestion if you could assure that the industry you were representing wasnt completely captured by heartless monsters who have a history of some of the biggest criminal fines in human history because their deception has cost hundreds of thousands of people their lives. It would be a great suggestion if the industry you were defending didnt occasionally look at human beings as an opportunity to generate insane wealth regardless of the tragic consequences.
At this point, Cuban, whose Cost Plus Drugs aims to lower the cost of generic drugs, weighed in:
Way to talk in generalities Joe. Not saying there arent a lot of f***ed up things about pharma. Thats why we created Cost Plus Drugs. But to ignore that the same industry has saved who knows how many lives is bullshit and you know it. Its also disrespectful to all the doctors, researchers and medical professionals that dedicate their lives to saving lives, like Dr Hotez and the 800k plus doctors in the country that believe vaccines save lives.
He then laid into Musk as well, contending that Rogan and Musks Twitter are the mainstream online media and your platforms have become everything supposedly wrong with MSM [mainstream media].
He added, You are driven by self interest. Just like the MSM always has been accused of. And you both have earned that right. You busted your asses to be great at what you do and earned all you have accomplished. But dont lie to yourselves and all of us and tell us you are different. You arent.
