Joe Rogan on trichinosis: what the evidence says · JRE #2262
SUBJECT: TRICHINOSIS
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
Think about how few people eat black bears. Yeah. But it's the number one source of trichinosis in America for people that test positive for it.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
CDC surveillance confirms the claim. As commercial pork production practices improved, human trichinellosis in the US shifted to wild game, with bear meat as the dominant identified source. In the CDC 2008 to 2012 surveillance, of cases with a known or suspected source, 67 percent were linked to nonpork products, and among those nonpork cases 41 of 45 (91 percent) were attributed to bear meat, far more than any other single source including pork. Public health analysts summarize that wild game meat, especially bear meat, has replaced pork as the leading source of Trichinella infection in the United States, and bear meat was the suspected or confirmed source in the majority of US outbreaks reported from 2016 to 2022. Black bear specifically is the species most often implicated, so Rogan's framing (few people eat it, yet it is the top identified source) is well supported.