Joe Rogan is Strong Like Horse
by Collin Wynter
Joe Rogan, ultra popular podcast host is well known for having controversial opinions and guests on his show. Even after the controversy involving his Spotify contract and deleting some episodes from that catalogue, he appears to be undeterred to have open and honest conversations. A recent hot topic of discussion was about his personalized treatment to contracting covid 19.
On Sept 1 Rogan took to Instagram to share a message titled “I GOT COVID. My apologies, but we have to move the Nashville show to Sunday, October 24. Much love to you all.”
This statement in of itself is not controversial. It was what he cited as treatment that had the media in an uproar.
“Monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, Z-Pak, prednisone, everything. I also got an NAD drip and a vitamin drip and I did that three days in a row. Here we are on Wednesday, and I feel great.”
Dr. Jonathan Reiner on CNN weighed in on all of the treatments and claimed that none of them were appropriate for Rogan, “[s]o you know, he’s promoting kind of a crazy jumble of you know, sort of folk remedies and internet-prescribed drugs”.
Instead of well wishes and a drive from the media for medical professionals to investigate the potential uses of the above in the fight against covid 19, the media focused on ivermectin to breed controversy.
Ivermectin, a 2015 Nobel Prize winning discovery, has been in the media for quite some time with clashes between those who claim it is useful against covid 19 versus those who state that there is little to no evidence showing that it has any effect, and actually may be harmful.
First used in farm animals, ivermectin has been refined for human use and contributes to the treatment of parasitic diseases worldwide.
The horse dewormer narrative was apparently fuelled by CNN’s Jim Acosta. On Sept 7, Rogan questioned whether he would have to sue the media giant for “making shit up.” He continues:
“They keep saying I’m taking horse dewormer. I literally got it from a doctor. It’s an American company. They won the Nobel Prize in 2015 for use in human beings and CNN is saying I’m taking horse dewormer. They must know that’s a lie.”
Rolling Stone also ran a fallacious article involving ivermectin on Sept 5. They claimed that an Oklahoma hospital was overrun with overdoses by an “anti-parasitic drug usually reserved for deworming horses or livestock.”
Quoting Dr. Jason McElyea, who had not worked there in months, emergency rooms were “so backed up that gunshot victims were having hard times getting” access. They also named Rogan as an “anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist” and stated that he “bragged” about taking ivermectin.
Rollingstone had to print a retraction to that story because One Hospital denied McElyea’s statement.
The FDA has also released a statement telling the public not to take horse dewormer.