Joe Rogan, host of the hugely popular podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience,” said Wednesday he tested positive for the coronavirus after returning from a number of shows in Florida where the virus is rampant.
Mr Rogan, who was reprimanded by federal officials last spring for suggesting on the podcast that young healthy people don’t need Covid vaccinations, said he felt sick on Saturday night after returning from performances in Orlando, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale . He did not say whether he was vaccinated.
“I got a fever and sweats all night and knew what was going on,” he said in a video on Instagram, adding that he had moved to another part of his home away from his family. (On an episode of his podcast in April, he mentioned that his children had mild Covid-19 symptoms at the beginning of the pandemic.)
He took a coronavirus test the next morning and it turned out positive, he said.
In his video on Wednesday, Mr Rogan said he had been treated with a range of drugs. “Sunday sucked,” he said, but when he made the video he said he felt “pretty good,” in an expletive way.
“A wonderful, heartfelt thank you to modern medicine for getting me out of it so quickly and easily,” he said.
The list of treatments he mentioned included monoclonal antibodies that have been shown to protect Covid patients at risk of serious illness; and prednisone, a steroid that is widely accepted as a Covid treatment. When Donald J. Trump fell ill with Covid during his presidency, he was also treated with monoclonal antibodies.
Mr. Rogan also said he was given a “vitamin drop” as well as ivermectin, a Drug mainly used as a de-wormer in veterinary medicine. The Food and Drug Administration has warned Covid-19 patients not to take the drug, and this has repeatedly proven ineffective for them in clinical trials. It’s a popular topic on Facebook, Reddit, and some conservative talk show hosts, however, and some toxicologists have warned of a spate of reports of overexposure to the drug by those who source it from pet supply stores.
Mr. Rogan is touring the country with a show called Joe Rogan: The Sacred Clown Tour. He was supposed to be doing a show with comedian Dave Chappelle in Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday, but said on his video on Wednesday that it would be postponed until October.
His podcast is essentially a series of wandering conversations, often about whiskey and weed, on topics like comedy, cage fighting, psychedelics, quantum mechanics, and the political excesses of the left. The show was licensed to Spotify last year for an estimated $ 100 million deal. His comments on the spring show, which undermine the value of vaccinations for young, healthy people, have been condemned by the Biden government and Prince Harry, another Spotify podcaster.
Mr Rogan has offered refunds to fans who bought tickets to an upcoming show at Madison Square Garden after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio requested evidence of vaccinations from attendees at major events.
Mr Rogan said on his podcast last week that 13,000 tickets had already been sold for the show but that he would offer refunds as he spoke out against vaccination regulations.
“If someone has an ideological or physiological reason not to be vaccinated, I do not want to force them to get vaccinated,” he said in the podcast at the end of August, underscoring his comment with profanity. “And now they say everyone needs to be vaccinated, and I want everyone to know you are getting your money back.”
Mr. Rogan returned from three shows in Florida last week, where the state is expecting the highest surge in viral infections ever, according to a New York Times database. Even as cases continue to rise and more than 15,600 people across Florida have been hospitalized with the virus, Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has maintained a ban on vaccine and mask mandates. Florida deaths are significantly higher than any other state in the country.
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