UFC: Dana White defends Joe Rogan after 270 doctors put pressure on Spotify with petition
- UFC president responds to Rolling Stone report of physicians and scientists calling on Spotify to tackle misinformation
- White clashes with reporter over effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies and ivermectin as treatment for Covid-19
UFC president Dana White jumped to the defence of cageside commentator and podcaster Joe Rogan as he got into an argument with a reporter regarding alternative treatments for Covid-19.
Rogan is the subject of a petition signed by 270 scientists and physicians pressuring Spotify – which has exclusive streaming rights to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast – to tackle Covid-19 misinformation.
One of the doctors said she considers Rogan a “menace to public health” for continuously spouting anti-vaccine ideology to his large following.
“Are they really?” White said at Saturday’s UFC Vegas 46 post-event press conference, when told by a reporter about doctors petitioning Spotify.
“Well, how about this – ever since I came out and said what I did, it’s almost impossible to get monoclonal antibodies. They’re making it so you can’t get them. Medicine that absolutely works, they’re keeping from us.
“I don’t want to get too political and start getting into all this s***, but ivermectin and monoclonal antibodies have been around for a long time. Now all of a sudden you can’t dig them up to save your life, the doctors won’t give them to you.
“Even when I did it here in Vegas, when I had [Covid-19] right before Christmas, I made one phone call and I was able to get it done. And that’s not some rich famous guy s*** – anybody could’ve called and got it back then.
“Now Rogan’s been talking about it and I went crazy talking about it, you can’t get those things to save your life now, literally.”
“It’s disgusting,” White added. “It’s one of the craziest things I've ever witnessed in my life. And we’re not talking about experimental drugs or things – this stuff’s been around. Ivermectin, the guy won a Nobel Peace Prize.”
Yahoo reporter Kevin Iole then asked White “are you a doctor?”, which drew a laugh from the UFC boss.
“There you go, here he comes!” White said of Iole, who had previously argued at a UFC press conference in support of vaccination against Covid-19.
“But I took them, and they both worked for me, so why shouldn’t I be able to take them again? Or other people?”
Iole declined to answer.
“No, come on, dive in,” White replied. “You want to know what’s scary? You can get some [expletive] pain pills quicker than I can get monoclonal antibodies. Not maybe, that is a fact. They [expletive] hand out pain pills like they’re tic tacs.
“Monoclonal antibodies and ivermectin isn’t gonna do anything to you. Pain pills kill you, fact, and I’m not a doctor, but that’s a fact.”
