Joe Rogan, a high-profile podcast host, comedian, and UFC commentator, revealed that he was diagnosed with COVID-19 and took a cocktail of interventions to treat his symptoms, among which was ivermectin.
“I had a headache, I just felt just run down,” the 54-year-old recounted, adding, “Just to be cautious, I separated myself from the family, slept in a different part of the house, and throughout the night, I got fevers and sweats—I knew what was going on.”
Rogan said that after his COVID-19 diagnosis, he decided to use “all kinds of meds ... everything,”
“Monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, Z-pak, prednisone—everything,” he said. “And I also got an NAD drip and a vitamin drip and I did that three days in a row.”
Rogan said that as of Wednesday, he felt “great,” and “pretty [expletive] good.”
His vaccination status is unclear. However, he has been criticized by public health officials for having said that healthy young people need not worry about taking a COVID-19 vaccine.
“I’m not an anti-vax person,” Rogan later clarified on his show in late April. “I believe they’re safe and encourage many people to take them.”
William Campbell and Satoshi Omura in 2015 won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery and applications of ivermectin. The drug is also listed on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines, and is an FDA-approved antiparasitic agent.
The agency said that ivermectin is “often used in the U.S. to treat or prevent parasites in animals,” and that it “has received multiple reports of patients who have required medical support and been hospitalized after self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses.”
The FDA warned that “many inactive ingredients found in animal products aren’t evaluated for use in people, and that in some cases, it is unclear ”how those inactive ingredients will affect how ivermectin is absorbed in the human body.”
The FDA said that it “has not reviewed data to support use of ivermectin in COVID-19 patients to treat or to prevent COVID-19.”