Podcast host Joe Rogan is accusing CNN of lying by claiming that he took a horse dewormer to treat COVID-19.
During an episode of his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” CNN’s chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta said, “Horse dewormer’s not a flattering thing, I get that.”
“It’s a lie, it’s a lie on a news network, and that’s a lie that they’re conscious of. That’s not a mistake. They’re unfavorably framing it as veterinary medicine,” Rogan responded.
Gupta noted that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent out a “snarky” tweet about the veterinary version of ivermectin that read, “You are not a horse, you are not a cow” and urged people to “stop taking this stuff.”
However, Rogan noted that ivermectin is also taken by humans and asked, “Why would they lie and say that’s horse dewormer? I can afford people medicine, motherf***er. This is ridiculous. It’s just a lie.”
He asked, “Don’t you think that a lie like that is dangerous on a news network when you know that they know that they’re lying?”
“Do you think that that’s a problem that your news network lies?” Rogan pressed.
Gupta asked what was said on the network that was false. Rogan explained that the journalists on CNN claimed he was taking a horse dewormer. He added that a doctor prescribed ivermectin to him.
The medical correspondent responded, “They shouldn’t have said it was [horse dewormer]. If you got a human pill, because there were people that were taking the veterinary medication…and you’re not obviously you got it from a doctor, so it shouldn’t be called that.”
Rogan asked, “Does it bother you that the news network you work for out and out lied, just outright lied about me taking horse dewormer?”
“They shouldn’t have said that,” Gupta said.
Watch the video below:
Joe Rogan asks Sanjay Gupta why CNN lied about Joe taking horse dewormer. Whole pod is worth a listen. pic.twitter.com/uvPLwfINd7
— rr (@remingtonreid) October 13, 2021
Rogan, who is not a medical expert, shared in September that he contracted the coronavirus and “immediately threw the kitchen sink at it, all kinds of med.”
He revealed that one of the medications he took was ivermectin, which health experts have warned against taking as a treatment for the virus.
According to the FDA, ivermectin is “approved for human use to treat infections caused by some parasitic worms and head lice and skin conditions like rosacea.”
The drug is also used to treat intestinal worms in livestock, and some have focused on its use in livestock to criticize those who have touted it as a potential treatment.
CNN’s Jim Acosta claimed in September that Rogan was “taking the livestock dewormer ivermectin.”
Dr. Fauci tells @Acosta that disinformation, like that being spread by Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan, is, "one of the enemies of public health." pic.twitter.com/4A3gUB3rWZ
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) September 5, 2021
While the FDA has approved ivermectin for human use, it warns that it has “not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals.”
The agency also notes that studies have not found ivermectin to be effective against the coronavirus and that taking large doses is dangerous.
Additionally, the FDA said there is an “animal ivermectin” that is “very different from those approved for humans.”
“Use of animal ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in humans is dangerous,” it adds.
The FDA says, “The most effective ways to limit the spread of COVID-19 include getting a COVID-19 vaccine when it is available to you and following current CDC guidance.”