Joe Rogan Calls Himself A 'Moron' After His Comments On Covid Vaccine Received Major Backlash

American comedian Joe Rogan back-pedaled from his controversial statement in which he advised healthy Americans to not take the Covid-19 vaccine.

"I'm like that's the one that is supposed to give you the worst side effects, buddy. Allegedly," the 53-year-old said on his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience” aired on April 23. Later in the show, Rogan spoke about "how masks do not work at all".

Rogan's comments created a furor on social media platforms. His statements drew serious backlash from critics, including many of Biden's officials.

"Did Joe Rogan become a medical doctor while we weren't looking?" White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told local media.

"You're talking about yourself in a vacuum," said White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci on NBC.

"If you want to only worry about yourself and not society, then that’s OK. But you’re saying to yourself, ‘Even if I get infected, I could do damage to somebody else even if I have no symptoms at all,’ and that’s the reason why you’ve got to be careful and get vaccinated," Fauci said.

Rogan acknowledged the White House’s response on an episode of his podcast out Thursday.

"I'm not an anti-vaxx person," he clarified. "I said I believe they're safe and I encourage many people to take them. My parents were vaccinated. I just said that if you're a young, healthy person that you don't need it."

"Their argument was, you need it for other people ... But that's a different argument. That's a different conversation."

Rogan blamed clickbait thumbnails for misleading his comments, adding that he himself was scheduled to get vaccinated before the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was temporarily paused.

"I'm not a doctor, I'm a f***-ing moron," he said. "I'm not a respected source of information, even for me ... But I at least try to be honest about what I'm saying."

Rogan's shows go air on Spotify. The company faced criticism for hosting shows that spread misinformation about vaccines.

The audio company had faced severe blowback in October last year after it aired an episode of Rogan's podcast that featured far-right conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones.

"We are not going to ban specific individuals from being guests on other people’s shows, as the episode/show complies with our content policies," the audio giant responded.