Dana White announces he’s COVID-free, thanks ‘Dr. Joe Rogan’

Five days after he said he tested positive for COVID-19, UFC President Dana White revealed he has now tested negative for the virus and plans to return to work on Monday, per doctor’s orders.

White clarified to TMZ that doctor is his actual doctor, not “Dr. Joe Rogan,” whom he thanked for recommending a controversial cocktail of drugs that he said treated 40 other friends of the UFC commentator, including NFL quarterback Aaron Rogers.

White said his wife, daughter and mother-in-law also underwent the treatment – which includes monoclonal antibodies, a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) drip, vitamins, and the anti-parasitic Ivermectin – and had also taken a turn for the better.

“Joe Rogan is a brilliant guy, and he talks to the most brilliant people out there,” White said. “He studies, he does his homework on all this stuff. It’s a fact that this works.”

Two types of monoclonal antibodies have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration when used for preventing COVID-19 after exposure to the virus. The NAD drip and Ivermection, however, remain controversial treatments that have not been approved or authorized by the agency for COVID-19 treatment. Rogan’s disclosure earlier this year of his positive COVID-19 test and subsequent treatment using the cocktail touched off a heated debate among medical professionals over the role of celebrities in recommending treatments for the virus.

White said on Wednesday that after losing his sense of smell and taste and confirming he was positive for COVID-19, he immediately turned to Rogan for advice. One day after he started the regimen, White, who said he had been immunized prior to his COVID positive and added he wasn’t a “crazy anti-vax conspiracy theorist,” said his smell and taste had returned.

White and the UFC have resisted the vaccine mandates that have been implemented across other major sports leagues, saying the choice resides with athletes. UFC fighters differ from other major sports in that they are independent contractors and not subject to a collective bargaining agreement. The promotion has nonetheless implemented a strict testing regimen throughout the pandemic that’s resulted in the cancellation of dozens of fights due to positive tests.

“This is a free country,” White told TMZ. “You can do whatever you want to do. ... I am vaccinated. I still got COVID, and I wasn’t going to lay around for days and see how this thing was going to play out for me.”

Check out the full interview below.