What Happened When An Aussie Journo Fact-Checked Joe Rogan On Air

You may have heard about Josh Szeps, the Australian Journalist who fact-checked Joe Rogan on last week’s episode of his insanely popular podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience. Rogan, who clocks up 11 million listens per episode, is notoriously outspoken about the Covid vaccines.

Josh Szeps hosts Afternoons on ABC Radio Sydney and spent more than a decade in the US appearing regularly on television and radio. 

Joe incorrectly said that there was a 2/4 fold increase in teenage boys developing instances of myocarditis from the Pfizer vaccine. Myocarditis is an illness that involves inflammation of the heart muscle which in extreme and rare cases results in heart failure.

Szeps fired back, stating that the risk of developing myocarditis from catching Covid significantly exceeded the risk of developing myocarditis from the vaccine. 

When Rogan disagreed, Szeps called him out, resulting in Rogan looking up the data on air, at which point he was proven incorrect. 

“Twelve to seventeen-year-olds (boys) are more likely to develop mild myocarditis within three months of catching Covid at a rate of 450 cases per million infections, this compares to 67 cases of myocarditis per million following their second dose of Pfizer,” Rogan said. 

To summarise his point, Szeps said, “Yeah, so you’re about 8 times likelier to get myocarditis from getting Covid than from getting the vaccine.”

On the latest episode of The Briefing with Tom Tilley, Josh Szeps breaks down what happened behind the scenes, his unlikely relationship with Rogan and his role in a world rife with vaccine misinformation.

Listen to the audio for the full episode below.