THIS HAPPENED: Jen Psaki Was Asked About Joe Rogan’s Medical Advice During Briefing Aboard Air Force One

OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images

In a surreal sign of the times, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki found herself being asked to weigh in on the medical advice that podcaster Joe Rogan gave to his listeners.

Because President Joe Biden was traveling on Friday, Psaki briefed reporters aboard Air Force One, and was asked about Rogan’s recommendation that certain of his listeners forego the Covid-19 vaccine.

Psaki responded at length about the issues of vaccine misinformation and hesitancy, but did not directly address Rogan:

Q Jen, how concerned is the White House about vaccine misinformation, given what happened with Joe Rogan this week? And can you talk about what you’re doing to counteract that?

MS. PSAKI: Well, I would say that our approach is to provide and flood the zone with accurate information. Obviously, that includes combating misinformation when it comes across.

But that’s one of the reasons that we have invested — we’re in the process of investing $3 billion across the country in public campaigns. That includes empowering and funding programs at the local level, but it also includes paid media. It includes work that we’re doing through social media channels as well, so that we can be the deliverers of information and accurate information to the communities across the country.

Q Do you foresee — you know, beyond what you’ve already announced about addressing vaccine hesitancy — announcing further steps in the future or doing more things to address it?

MS. PSAKI: To address vaccine confidence or —

Q Vaccine hesitancy or just increased — like, the targeting that you’re doing, especially with people that might be susceptible to, you know, misinformation.

MS. PSAKI: Sure. We’re always evaluating what’s most effective. We look at the data, how communities are impacted by information that’s being shared with them, where we see a downtick in communities being open to taking the vaccine — or an uptick.

The good news is that, according to recent polling, that in December the — only about 30 percent — or just over 30 percent of the public were open to taking the vaccine, and now it’s in the 60s.

So, we’ve seen an increase in confidence. We’ve also seen an increase in confidence among communities that had a higher level of hesitancy. But, we will continue to make determinations about what the public campaign should look like, what information should be disseminated and distributed through our local partners as well.

Rogan also came up at Friday’s briefing by the White House Covid team, with similar results.

The host recently said on his podcast that “if you’re a healthy person, and you’re exercising all the time, and you’re young, and you’re eating well, like, I don’t think you need to worry about this.”

The remarks earned a detailed rebuke from infectious disease honcho Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Rogan himself has disavowed the comments, saying “I’m not a doctor, I’m a fucking moron!”

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