Just a day after apologising for sharing Covid-19 misinformation on his podcast, Joe Rogan tweeted and then removed a post that included false information about the drug Ivermectin.
Ivermectin has been celebrated in right-wing and anti-vaccine groups as a way to battle Covid-19, going against the advice of medical professionals and experts.
“Well lookie here,” Mr Rogan wrote and retweeted a post claiming that Ivermectin had been revealed to be effective against Omicron in a clinical trial.
Reuters reported that a Japanese company said that Ivermectin showed an “antiviral effect” against Omicron and other variants of Covid-19 in joint non-clinical research.
“The original Reuters story misstated that ivermectin was ‘effective’ against Omicron in Phase III clinical trials, which are conducted in humans,” the news agency noted.
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale tweeted that Mr Rogan’s tweet “came hours – like more than 10 hours – after Reuters corrected its story to make clear this company did *not* say ivermectin had been found effective against omicron in a clinical trial”.
Versions of Ivermectin have been approved for use in both humans and animals to treat parasites and other conditions. No clinical trial has shown the drug to be effective against Covid-19, but research is being conducted.
It has been reported that Mr Rogan received $100m from Spotify for the rights to his podcast. He has boosted Ivermectin and he has said that he has used it himself when he was infected with Covid-19.
Both Mr Rogan and Spotify have been accused of spreading misinformation about both the coronavirus and the vaccines that have been distributed to millions after being proven to be safe and effective at preventing severe disease, hospitalisation, and death.
Neil Young recently had his music removed from Spotify because the platform also hosts Mr Rogan’s podcast.
“They can have Rogan or Young – not both,” he wrote. Other artists also had their music removed from the platform, including Joni Mitchell.
“If I pissed you off, I’m sorry,” Mr Rogan said on Instagram on Sunday. “And if you enjoy the podcast, thank you.”
He criticised the use of the term “misinformation” and said his guests are “highly credentialled, very intelligent” and “very accomplished”.
“They have an opinion that is different from the mainstream narrative,” he said. “I wanted to hear what their opinion is.”
“I’m very sorry that they feel that way,” Mr Rogan said, referring to the musicians pulling their music off the platform. “I most certainly don’t want that. I’m a Neil Young fan. I’ve always been a Neil Young fan.”
The podcaster said he would prepare more for his interviews in future “and have all the pertinent facts at hand before I discuss them”.
He also said he would “balance out these more controversial viewpoints with other people’s perspectives so we can maybe find a better point of view”.
Spotify said in a statement on Sunday that it would add a content advisory to discussions concerning Covid-19 and direct listeners to a “hub” with information about the virus.
The music streaming service also noted that it has rules against content that “promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information”.
