‘Dishonest’: Crowd shames former CNN host for shaming people on ivermectin

An audience mocked former CNN host Chris Cuomo Friday after he tried to deny that he shamed people for using ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment during the pandemic.

A coordinated disinformation campaign

Cuomo made the remarks during a debate with comedian Dave Smith on Patrick Bet-David’s PBD Podcast. The two men discussed the mainstream media’s disinformation campaign in 2021 that was designed to dissuade the public from taking ivermectin to cure COVID-19. As part of the campaign, reporters misleadingly referred to ivermectin as a “horse dewormer” and left out the fact that an FDA-approved version of the drug is also made for humans.

The disinformation campaign took on a note of hysteria when Joe Rogan, the world’s most popular podcast host, told his 11 million listeners that he was taking ivermectin for COVID-19. Mainstream media activists, including Cuomo, scrambled to discredit Rogan and shame people for using the drug.

Cuomo then: Ivermectin users ‘need to be shamed’

Following Rogan’s disclosure, then-CNN anchor Chris Cuomo demanded that people taking ivermectin for COVID-19 should be “shamed.” The remarks were made on-air after Cuomo’s colleague, Don Lemon, expressed his frustration with “people who are getting, injecting, drugs for animals and horse—"

"And people telling them to!" Cuomo interrupted. "What person — you know, you talk about cancel culture and who to blame — ivermectin? A dewormer? Really?” he said as Lemon chuckled. “They need to be shamed. They need to be called out and shamed, brother.”

Cuomo now: ‘I’m taking the drug right now’

But on Friday, Cuomo claimed to sympathize with Rogan.

“[B]y the way, I don’t like what people did to Joe Rogan about ivermectin,” Cuomo said.

“You did it!” Smith responded, prompting laughs from the audience.

“No, no,” Cuomo denied.

“Yes you did! Find the clips. Dude you shamed Joe Rogan. You said he’s taking horse dewormer, you and Don Lemon were chuckling at each other about it. I’ll go find the clip, I watched it,” Smith continued.

When the above clip was played for the audience, the crowd shouted and jeered at Cuomo, who tried to walk back his comments.

“You weren’t being clear that it was this [version made for humans] and you know that,” Smith shouted as Cuomo tried to get a word in. “Dude, you’re being so dishonest right now, man.”

“I’m not being dishonest,” Cuomo claimed.

“You were talking about ivermectin, the drug. You were not talking about this version of ivermectin. Come on, man.”

“I was responding to a situation where we were told that this was what people were searching out to take and nobody knew what it was going to do,” Cuomo responded, prompting more jeers from the audience. “Look, I’m taking the drug right now. Obviously, I don’t think it’s all poison. I stopped calling it the horse drug when…CNN’s chief medical officer, who was Sanjay Gupta, said to me, ‘You shouldn’t just call it a horse dewormer. There’s a whole legitimate aspect of the drug. I wouldn’t use it for COVID-19, but it’s not just the veterinary grade.’ So I stopped calling it that and then it went away.’” Cuomo said.

CNN led the disinformation campaign against ivermectin despite scientific evidence that the drug was safe and effective for early COVID-19.