The debate has surrounded the safety of COVID-19 vaccines since their public release, with some questioning the merits of vaccination versus seeking alternative methods of protection.
American commentator and podcaster Joe Rogan has brought the debate to the forefront once again by accusing the world's largest search engine of hiding a COVID-19 vaccine death-related story.
Joe Rogan shared his discovery of a sensitive story regarding deaths caused by a second COVID vaccine dose, which he didn't find on Google but found on DuckDuckGo.
As a privacy-centric browser and search engine, DuckDuckGo prioritizes users' privacy by not tracking their searches or online activities.
Rogan asserts that this search engine lives up to its claims. He states, “If you use Duckduckgo, you just get what's out there.”
He claims that Google kept one particular story hidden from the search engine to avoid increasing widespread vaccine hesitancy.
During the pandemic, the former television presenter learned of a doctor who had a heart attack shortly after receiving his second shot, presumably of Moderna.
When he tried to research the story further on Google, he encountered what he believes to be an attempt by the search engine to keep it hidden from the public view, as he couldn't find anything about the story.
Rogan turned to DuckDuckGo after failing to find the story on Google, where hex immediately found what he was looking for.
He exclaimed, 'whoa, this is wild!' and concluded that Google was concealing certain stories to avoid increasing vaccine hesitancy, which he finds “terrifying."
@mfuk01 #fyp #2023 #duckduckgo ♬ original sound - #MFUK😉🇬🇧
Viewers had a lot to say about this.
Many viewers were alarmed by Joe Rogan's argument that Google is hiding information and it has further fueled vaccine hesitancy, while others argued that DuckDuckGo is no longer a trustworthy option.
“The longer I remain unjabbed, the more evidence I see supporting my decision,” one user wrote.
A second stated that Bill Gates was the new owner of DuckDuckGo, but another countered this assertion, pointing out that Google, not Gates, had bought the search engine, and that Google and Microsoft “have nothing in common.”
A third argued, “Duck Duck Go censors and tracks you.”
“Duck duck go isn’t any better google,” a fourth shared, “might as well just use google.”
A fifth wrote, “It amazes me how naive Rogan is about some things we've been talking about for years.”
Some viewers don't trust either Google or DuckDuckGo and have shared their preferred alternatives. One viewer shared, “I like yandex,” while another suggested, “Use Brave search engine.”
Ultimately, the vaccination rate of 68% in the USA doesn’t seem to be enough to convince many individuals to get vaccinated, and instead they’re looking for alternative safety measures. This decision appears to be reinforced by stories like the one shared by Ragon, which could further increase vaccine hesitancy in the country.
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