Comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan shared on Instagram Wednesday that he had contracted COVID and, during the recovery process, took a “kitchen sink” of drugs, including the bogus horse dewormer Ivermectin.
Rogan posted a video about his COVID experience, saying he began to feel feverish and chills over the weekend before testing positive. Rogan tested positive after performing a series of shows in Florida.
“So we immediately threw the kitchen sink at it,” Rogan said. “All kinds of meds. Monoclonal antibodies. Ivermectin. Z-pack. Prednisone. Everything.”
That’s right, Ivermectin. A horse dewormer the FDA says you should not take to treat COVID-19.
Rogan — who hosts a wildly popular podcast for which Spotify paid more than $100 million — said he felt great Wednesday and that Sunday was the only day he felt really sick. He alerted his fans that he had to postpone a planned show in Nashville before concluding the video.
“Obviously it was nothing that I could control. It is what it is, crazy times we’re living in,” Rogan said. “A wonderful, heartfelt thank you to modern medicine for pulling me out of this so quickly and easily.”
It’s interesting Rogan would thank modern medicine, considering Ivermectin is a drug typically employed as an animal dewormer. Small amounts of the drug are sometimes approved for human use to combat head lice and other parasites, but it is not an effective treatment for COVID.
Still, because it was promoted as a miracle cure by anti-vaxxers online, some folks began taking highly concentrated amounts of Ivermectin meant for horses or livestock. Yes, people began ingesting weird horse goo instead of getting a simple, safe, effective vaccine. What a world.
So, not the most ideal thing for Rogan to promote especially considering his podcast reaches millions of people. But he’s had lots of sketchy things to say during the pandemic. Rogan has, for instance, said he doesn’t think young, healthy people need to get vaccinated and falsely claimed vaccinated people helped increase dangerous mutations of the virus.
It’s not clear, however, if Rogan — who has been traveling and doing shows — has been vaccinated.
“I’m not an antivax person,” Rogan said in an April in an apparent attempt to walk back his vaccine skepticism. “I believe they’re safe and encourage many people to take them.”
Still, even Rogan himself might tell you not to take his medical advice. He cleared up his credentials in those April comments.
“I’m not a doctor, I’m a fucking moron,” he said.
