Culture

Joe Rogan, Who Told Millions To Not Worry About Vaccines, “Treated” His COVID With Horse Paste

Joe Rogan shared that he used ivermectin to treat his COVID on the same day an Australian man overdosed on the horse dewormer.

by Michelle Rennex  2 September 2021
Joe Rogan COVID ivermectin horse paste dewormer

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

Remember when Joe Rogan dismissed the usefulness of COVID vaccines to his 200 million listeners back in April? Well, today the podcaster announced that he got COVID.

Back in April, Rogan was slammed by White House officials for telling his young listeners that they “didn’t need” to get vaccinated if they were a “healthy person… young… and eating well”.

After he was dragged for his vaccination comments, Rogan called himself a “fucking moron” and clarified that he is “not a doctor” nor a “respected source of information” on COVID-19. So it’s pretty ironic that now, five months after he told people not to trust him, Rogan is telling his followers that he cured his coronavirus diagnosis with “all kinds of meds” including dewormer meant for horses. Yes. Seriously.

Sharing the news of his diagnosis via IGTV, Rogan explained that he tested positive for coronavirus after performing at a number of shows across Florida — a state where the daily average of new cases sits above 20,000.

“Throughout the night, I got fevers, sweats, and I knew what was going on,” he told his 13 million Instagram followers this morning. “I got up in the morning, got tested and it turns out I got COVID.”

“So we immediately threw the kitchen sink at it. All kinds of meds. Monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, Z-Pak, prednisone, everything,” Rogan continued. “I also got a NAD drip and a vitamin drip and I did that three days in a row.”

“And here we are on Wednesday, and I feel great. Sunday sucked, Monday was better. Tuesday felt better than Monday, and today I feel good. I actually feel pretty fucking good.”

“A wonderful, heartfelt thank you to modern medicine for pulling me out of this so quickly and easily.”

In case you missed that, Joe Rogan told his followers that he used ivermectin to treat COVID.

If you don’t know what ivermectin is, it’s a drug used to prevent parasitic worms in animals, often horses, and is not an anti-viral drug. COVID-19 is famously a virus that occurs in humans, not horses.

Back in March, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) even had to speak out to urge citizens to stop using the animal-grade dewormer to treat COVID-19. This is because ivermectin for humans does exist — tablets can be prescribed to humans to treat intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis and topical versions are good for lice and other skin conditions.

But even though human versions do exist, anti-vaxxers have been seeking out the dewormer in paste form en masse from livestock supply stores thinking it’s “stronger” than the human version.

“Animal drugs are often highly concentrated because they are used for large animals like horses and cows, which can weigh a lot more than we do—a ton or more,” the FDA explained in March. “Such high doses can be highly toxic in humans.”

After cases of poison control calls related to the use of ivermectin spiked in July, the FDA felt the need to issue a new, more direct warning in August: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

Along with the FDA, Australia’s own Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) issued their own warning against ivermectin in August to remind Australians that the animal-grade dewormer isn’t approved for use in humans in this country either.

“The TGA strongly discourages self-medication and self-dosing with ivermectin for COVID-19 as it may be dangerous to your health,” the TGA said after The Guardian reported that pharmacists were seeing a surge in interest for ivermectin.

“Ivermectin is indicated in the management and treatment of infections caused by parasites, such as mites and worms,” the TGA continued. “In Australia, ivermectin has been approved for the treatment of roundworm infections, scabies, and inflammatory rosacea.”

However, these warnings haven’t stopped anti-vaxxers who are certain they know more than doctors and medical researchers. Today — on the same day that Joe Rogan told followers that he helped cure his COVID with horse dewormer — a Western Sydney man was rushed to hospital after overdosing on ivermectin.

Related
An Anti-Vaxx Influencer Was Charged After Her Fake COVID Vaccine Card Scam Was Exposed On TikTok

After he presented to Westmead Hospital with vomiting and diarrhoea as a result of the drug, toxicologist Associate Professor Naren Gunja had to beg for people to stop searching for “magic cures” to treat COVID online.

“There’s no evidence to support the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19,” Professor Gunja told The Pulse. “Don’t look for magic cures online, and don’t rely on what’s being peddled on the internet, because none of them work.”

Yet, despite numerous federal health bodies warning against the use of horse paste to treat COVID, we still have people like Joe Rogan proudly promoting the “success” of dangerous horse medications allegedly curing them.

And while Rogan may not have clarified whether he took the paste or tablet version of ivermectin in his video, the fact that sentence can even be written really is just 2021 in a nutshell for you.