Joe Rogan threatens to sue CNN for ripping his use of ivermectin

Joe Rogan threatened to sue CNN on Tuesday over its ridiculing his use of ivermectin after he tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

On Tuesday’s podcast, Mr. Rogan said “Bro, do I have to sue CNN?” after guest Tom Segura called him “old ‘Horse Worm’ Rogan.”

“They’re making s*** up,” Mr. Rogan said. “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.”

“If the internet says it, who cares. But CNN is saying it. Jim Acosta!”

The quarrel with the liberal network grew out of Mr. Rogan’s saying last week that he had tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19 but had engineered a quick recovery.

He said that he “threw the kitchen sink” at the disease, including “monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, Z-Pak, prednisone, everything. And I also got an NAD drip and a vitamin drip and I did that three days in a row. And so, here we are on Wednesday, and I feel great.”

Ivermectin has become a focal point for liberal criticism of people who resist being vaccinated against COVID-19.

The drug has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for human use, albeit not against COVID-19 or anything adjacent like flu — specifically, for fighting off parasitic worms and head lice.

However, there are some anecdotal accounts and dissident doctors who say ivermectin has had promising results against COVID-19 and some people have turned to it. But another form of the drug is available without a prescription, as the human form requires because it’s also used to treat worms in large animals, primarily cows and horses. 

That form, however, is intended for animals that weigh many times what people do and accordingly is far more powerful than humans should take, effective or not. There are anecdotal accounts of people self-medicating and suffering severe side effects, including digestive woes.

Ridicule of ivermectin users on that basis, such as Mr. Segura, a stand-up comedian, made against Mr. Rogan, has become a staple of liberal discourse in recent weeks.

CNN contributed to that when among other occasions, a guest on “Don Lemon Tonight” said Mr. Rogan was “promoting kind of a crazy jumble of, you know, sort of folk remedies and internet-prescribed drugs. It’s, again, dangerous now.” 

CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner added that Mr. Rogan “should have more sense after encountering the disease … He’s not helping matters when he promotes this sort of nonsense therapeutic mix.”

Mr. Rogan said on Tuesday’s podcast that what he did is not nonsense.

“Multiple doctors told me to take it,” he said, citing specifically a medical expert who appeared on his show and said the drug has some promising results.

“CNN was saying I’m a ‘distributor of misinformation,’” he said, adding that Japanese doctors have recommended the drug to treat COVID-19.

The famed podcaster also noted that CNN had ignored one very important detail about his regimen. That it had worked.

“What they didn’t highlight is that I got better,” he said. “They tried to make it seem as if, like, I’m doing some wacky s*** that’s completely ineffective.”