Episode 1720: Tony Hinchcliffe & Brian Redban
Introduction
Episode 1720 of the Joe Rogan Experience, featuring comedians Tony Hinchcliffe and Brian Redban, aired on October 15, 2021. While the episode includes substantial comedy and entertainment content — wrestling stories, Squid Game discussion, Kill Tony anecdotes, and general banter — it also contains extended segments of COVID-19 misinformation delivered by three non-medical-professionals. The episode aired during a critical period of the pandemic when vaccine uptake was essential for public health, making the misinformation spread particularly harmful.
Neither Hinchcliffe nor Redban has any medical or scientific credentials. Hinchcliffe is a stand-up comedian, writer, and co-host of the Kill Tony podcast. Redban is a podcast producer and co-host of Kill Tony. Despite their lack of expertise, the trio spent significant portions of this 3.5-hour episode making unsubstantiated medical claims and promoting vaccine skepticism to Rogan’s audience of millions.
Key False and Misleading Claims
Claim: Natural Immunity Is 6 to 13 Times Better Than Vaccination
Rogan cited a “study out of Israel” claiming that natural immunity from prior COVID infection provided “between six and 13 times better protection” than vaccination, using this to argue against vaccine mandates for previously infected people.
Fact-Check: Rogan was referencing a preprint (non-peer-reviewed) study from Israel that was widely misrepresented in anti-vaccine circles. While the study did find some evidence of stronger protection from prior infection against the Delta variant specifically, critical context was omitted:
- The study was a preprint that had not undergone peer review at the time of the episode
- The “13-fold” figure came from extremely small numbers — 238 infections among ~16,000 vaccinated people versus 19 reinfections among ~16,000 previously infected people — making the comparison statistically fragile
- No participants in either group died, demonstrating vaccines still provided strong protection against severe outcomes
- The study’s own authors stated that one dose of vaccine enhanced protection for previously infected individuals — a finding Rogan ignored
- A CDC study from the same period found that unvaccinated previously infected people in Kentucky were more than twice as likely to become reinfected compared to those who were previously infected AND vaccinated
- A subsequent CDC study (October 29, 2021) found vaccines provided five times the protection of natural immunity against hospitalization
Presenting this single preprint without its limitations or contradicting evidence misled listeners into believing vaccination was unnecessary for previously infected people, contrary to expert guidance.
Sources: FactCheck.org - Instagram Post Missing Context About Israeli Study on COVID-19 Natural Immunity; PolitiFact - Immunity gained from COVID-19 infection ignores risks
Claim: Ivermectin Works for COVID and Is Being Suppressed by Pharmaceutical Companies
The episode included discussion suggesting ivermectin is effective against COVID-19 and that its efficacy was being suppressed because pharmaceutical companies had “a competitive drug that’s coming out.” Rogan promoted the conspiracy theory that ivermectin was being “demonized” for commercial reasons.
Fact-Check: At the time of this episode, the FDA had explicitly warned against using ivermectin to treat COVID-19, stating that “currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19.” The NIH COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel likewise recommended against ivermectin use for COVID-19. While ivermectin showed antiviral properties in laboratory cell cultures, the concentrations required were 100-fold higher than doses approved for human use, making lab results clinically irrelevant.
Subsequent large-scale randomized controlled trials, including the TOGETHER trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine (2022), confirmed that ivermectin did not provide meaningful clinical benefit for COVID-19 patients. Some of the early meta-analyses cited by ivermectin proponents were later found to include fraudulent studies that inflated the drug’s apparent effectiveness.
The pharmaceutical conspiracy framing — that ivermectin was suppressed to benefit competing drugs — is a common anti-establishment trope that lacks evidence and distracts from the scientific process of evaluating treatments through rigorous clinical trials.
Sources: FDA - Ivermectin and COVID-19; NIH COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines - Ivermectin
Claim: Vaccine Side Effects Are Caused by Accidental Blood Vessel Injection
Rogan promoted the claim that many vaccine side effects were caused by vaccinators accidentally injecting into blood vessels rather than muscle tissue, due to failure to use an “aspiration technique.” He presented this as an established explanation for adverse reactions.
Fact-Check: This claim significantly overstates the evidence. The WHO and CDC do not recommend aspiration before intramuscular vaccination because no large blood vessels are present at standard injection sites (deltoid muscle). While a mouse study suggested intravenous mRNA vaccine injection could theoretically cause myocarditis, there was no human clinical evidence supporting this as a significant cause of vaccine side effects at the time. Myocarditis after COVID vaccination occurs at a rate of approximately 2 per 100,000 injections, and most cases are mild and self-resolving. Presenting this unproven hypothesis as the established explanation for vaccine side effects was misleading.
Sources: Health Feedback - Incorrect vaccine administration is a potential cause of post-vaccine adverse effects, but more research is still needed; 10TV - No, doctors don’t need to aspirate the injection when giving the COVID-19 vaccine
Claim: Vaccines Are “New Medication” and Mandates Force People to “Take a Chance”
Rogan framed COVID-19 vaccines as risky experimental treatments, saying “you can’t tell someone that their job depends on taking a chance with this new medication.” This language frames vaccines as dangerous gambles rather than thoroughly tested medical interventions.
Fact-Check: By October 2021, COVID-19 vaccines had been administered to billions of people worldwide and had undergone extensive clinical trials involving tens of thousands of participants. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine received full FDA approval (not just Emergency Use Authorization) on August 23, 2021 — nearly two months before this episode aired. Characterizing fully approved vaccines backed by extensive real-world safety data as a risky “chance” was irresponsible and misleading.
Source: FDA - FDA Approves First COVID-19 Vaccine (August 23, 2021)
Anecdotal Vaccine Injury Story Presented Without Context
Rogan shared a story about a maid experiencing severe nerve pain after vaccination, presenting it as evidence of vaccine danger without providing context about the extreme rarity of serious adverse events or the far greater risks of COVID-19 infection itself.
Fact-Check: Anecdotal reports of individual adverse reactions, while valid personal experiences, do not constitute evidence of widespread vaccine danger. The CDC’s extensive monitoring systems (VAERS, V-safe, Vaccine Safety Datalink) consistently found that serious side effects from COVID-19 vaccines are rare. Presenting a single anecdote as representative misleads audiences about the risk-benefit calculus that overwhelmingly favored vaccination.
Source: CDC - COVID-19 Vaccine Safety
Joe Rogan’s Role
This episode is notable because the COVID misinformation is driven primarily by Rogan himself rather than by his guests. Hinchcliffe and Redban are comedians with no medical expertise, yet Rogan — who also lacks medical credentials — takes the lead in making medical claims and presenting them as informed analysis:
- Rogan presents selective research as settled science: He cites a single non-peer-reviewed Israeli preprint while ignoring CDC studies that reached different conclusions, presenting cherry-picked data to millions of listeners as if it were definitive
- Rogan promotes pharmaceutical conspiracy theories: He suggests ivermectin is being suppressed for commercial reasons, feeding distrust in public health institutions without evidence
- Rogan frames vaccines as experimental and risky: Despite full FDA approval having been granted nearly two months earlier, Rogan continues to characterize vaccines as dangerous gambles
- Rogan uses anecdotal evidence as proof: Sharing a single story of an adverse reaction as evidence of systemic vaccine danger is a classic misinformation technique
- Rogan’s guests do not challenge any claims: Neither Hinchcliffe nor Redban pushes back on any of the medical claims, and the conversational setting gives the misinformation an air of casual common sense rather than the fringe medical opinion it represents
This episode is a clear example of Rogan using his enormous platform to spread medical misinformation under the guise of casual conversation, without any expert present to provide corrections or context.
Real-World Harm
This episode aired on October 15, 2021, during a period when:
- The Delta variant was causing severe illness and death, particularly among unvaccinated individuals
- Vaccine hesitancy was a significant barrier to ending the pandemic
- The U.S. was averaging over 1,500 COVID deaths per day
- Misinformation about ivermectin was driving people to use veterinary formulations, leading to poison control center calls increasing 163% over baseline according to the CDC
Rogan’s audience at this time was estimated at approximately 11 million listeners per episode. Spreading vaccine skepticism, ivermectin promotion, and pharmaceutical conspiracy theories to this audience during a public health emergency had real potential to discourage vaccination and drive people toward unproven treatments.
A January 2022 open letter signed by 270 physicians, scientists, and healthcare professionals called on Spotify to address COVID misinformation on the Joe Rogan Experience, citing episodes like this as contributing to “a sociological issue of devastating proportions.”
Conclusion
While JRE episode 1720 contains substantial comedy and entertainment content typical of Hinchcliffe and Redban appearances, the extended segments of COVID-19 misinformation — including vaccine skepticism, ivermectin promotion, pharmaceutical conspiracy theories, and misleading use of scientific data — make this episode problematic. The misinformation is particularly concerning because it comes primarily from Rogan himself rather than from a controversial guest, demonstrating how the podcast serves as a vehicle for Rogan’s own uninformed medical opinions to reach millions of listeners without any expert counterbalance.