Ted Nugent has opened up about his battle with COVID-19, saying that he “took intelligent, professionally guided care” in order to beat the novel coronavirus.
Less than a month after publicly revealing that he had tested positive for COVID-19, the outspoken conservative rocker discussed his experience during a YouTube livestream with his wife Shemane on Sunday (May 9).
Asked by Shemane what he does to stay healthy, Ted said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I eat smart — I eat in smart proportions — and I eat wild game and I eat organic vegetables by the bucketful. I have good natural juice that Shemane makes for me. We take the Isagenix, a type of vitamins. And, of course, since the Wuhan virus assault took place way back in 2019, we have pounded the zinc… All my life, I’ve taken the B12, vitamin D — D fortifies your immune system — a solid C, and now I’m taking the elderberry, and I take zinc every day. And I was on the hydroxychloroquine and the ivermectin and the steroids, along with those good vitamins, and I knocked the shit out of this Chinese virus after about a week. Some of my buddies, many of whom got the vaccine and still got the Chinese virus. They wore masks, and they still got the Chinese virus. They social distanced and they still got the Chinese virus. So, c’mon! Who believes the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] or [U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony] Fauci?”
He added, “Anyhow, so we took intelligent, professionally guided care from the ‘Frontline Doctors‘,” referring to a group of doctors who made a video last July calling for the use of hydroxychloroquine to battle the novel coronavirus, despite warnings from public health experts.
In the above-mentioned video, a group of people wearing white lab coats calling themselves “America’s Frontline Doctors” staged a press conference in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. and made a number of dubious claims, including that “you don’t need masks” to prevent spread of the coronavirus, and that studies showing hydroxychloroquine is ineffective for the treatment of COVID-19 are “fake science” sponsored by “fake pharma companies.” According to Politifact, many of the doctors’ claims contradicted recommendations from public health organizations and experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci. The video quickly went viral on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube before it was taken down for promoting misinformation.
Hydroxychloroquine is the malaria drug pushed by then-president Donald Trump that proved ineffective against COVID-19. In April 2020, the Food and Drug Administration issued a safety warning, saying the drugs could cause heart-rhythm problems and warning they should be used only in the hospital setting or in clinical trials.
Ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug used to treat several neglected tropical diseases in humans is also used in veterinary medicine. According to The Washington Post, the Food and Drug Administration said at least three people were hospitalized in February after taking the veterinary formulation. It warned that high doses can cause allergic reactions, seizures, liver injury and even death.
Last month, Nugent talked about the darkest days of his battle with COVID-19, saying that he had “never been so scared” in his entire life. The 72-year-old pro-gun activist, who had previously the virus was “not a real pandemic,” said: “It was really scary. I didn’t think I was gonna make it. I literally couldn’t function for about 20 hours, and then they came and they rescued me… The six-foot-two, 225-pound headache [this time] was like nothing I have ever experienced. I mean, from my tip of my toes to the top of my hair, I literally was dizzy and weak and struggled to get up to go to the bathroom. And I would lay in the bathtub a couple of times a day with the water as hot as I could take it just to divert.”
Despite his COVID-19 diagnosis, Nugent reiterated his previous stance that he wouldn’t be getting the vaccine and he mocked people who wear face masks, despite that both the CDC and World Health Organization have urged their universal use.
In the past, Nugent, a staunch Trump supporter, had referred to the virus as a “leftist scam to destroy” America’s 45th president. He had also repeated a narrative pushed by conservative media and disputed by health experts that suggests the official death count from the coronavirus is inflated.
