The Art of Being Wrong

Justin D. Henderson, PhD
9 min readJan 22, 2022

It takes great skill to be wrong well.

“No, no, no, I don’t believe it,” Rogan continued. “That people who catch COVID when they’re young have a higher risk of myocarditis than people who get the vaccine have a higher risk of myocarditis.”

In a recent podcast episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan’s guest was Australian media personality Josh Szeps. The two began discussing the Pfizer vaccine and Rogan elaborated on a belief he had that the vaccine is potentially dangerous to boys and young men.

Specifically, he voiced concern that the vaccine was producing a concerning rate of myocarditis, an inflammation in the tissues of the heart. He presumably was referring to an article in The Guardian making such claims based on a study that used data from Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). The VAERS has come under considerable scientific scrutiny given the nature of its self-report that leads to bias in the data gathered.

Later, the British Journal of Medicine would rebuke for reporting on unreliable data. But this did not appear to have swayed Rogan’s position.

This is not a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to Rogan’s journey through the pandemic…

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Justin D. Henderson, PhD

Dr. Justin D. Henderson is a psychologist, professor of counseling, and organizational consultant. He’s a Medium Top Writer in Leadership and Business.