Podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan tests positive for COVID-19

Popular podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan revealed in an Instagram video that he has tested positive for coronavirus.

Rogan,whose podcast has millions of downloads a month,has been criticised for questioning the value of vaccines for young people,said he “felt very weary” after returning from a trip and got tested.

Joe Rogan is one of the superstars of podcasting.

Joe Rogan is one of the superstars of podcasting.Supplied

Once he learnt he was positive,the fight commentator-turnedstar of The Joe Rogan Experience,said he took a variety of drugs to treat it,including ivermectin,the deworming drug that medical authorities have warned COVID-19 patients against taking and that has repeatedly been shown as ineffective for them in clinical trials.

In August,Mississippi’s health department issued a warning that more than 70 per cent of recent calls to the state’s poison centre came after people took ivermectin bought at livestock supply centres.

“We immediately threw the kitchen sink at it,” Rogan said in the video. “All kinds of meds. Monoclonal antibodies,ivermectin,Z-pack,prednisone – everything.”

Rogan had the top podcast on Spotify in 2020.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship-commentator has long championed wellness products to his fans.

In April,Rogan drew criticism for telling his millions of listeners that young,healthy people did not need vaccination against coronavirus.

“I’m not an anti-vax person,” Rogan said later. “I believe they’re safe and encourage many people to take them.”

Rogan is the latest of a number of American vaccine-sceptic personalities to become infected with coronavirus.

Two conservative Tennessee talk show hosts who railed against vaccinations – Phil Valentine,61,and Farrel Austin Levitt,publicly known as Dick Farrel,65 – both died of coronavirus last month.

Conservative Florida radio host Marc Bernier,65,who was dead-set against taking a coronavirus vaccine,also died of COVID-19 last month,as did Tennessee-based nationally syndicated Christian preacher Jimmy DeYoung,81.

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Chris Zappone is Digital Foreign Editor.

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