During the
COVID-19 pandemic, Weinstein made several public appearances advocating the use of the antiparasitic drug
ivermectin to
prevent or treat the disease and downplaying the effectiveness of
COVID-19 vaccines.
[50] David Gorski, in
Science-Based Medicine, described Weinstein as a prominent "COVID-19 contrarian and spreader of disinformation", and "one of the foremost purveyors of COVID-19 disinformation", citing his appearances on
Joe Rogan and
Bill Maher.
[5][36] Sam Harris criticized Weinstein's advocacy, stating that he "consider it dangerous".
[36] Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine, described Weinstein's position on
mRNA vaccines as "totally irresponsible. It's reckless. It's sick. It's predatory. It's really sad."
[36]
Weinstein has made erroneous claims that ivermectin can prevent or treat COVID-19, calling it "a near-perfect COVID prophylactic".
[51][5] There is no good evidence to support such claims.
[52][53][54] Weinstein hosted ivermectin advocate
Pierre Kory on his
DarkHorse podcast to discuss the drug,
[55][6] and advocated for the use of ivermectin on other podcast and television news appearances
.[56][57] Weinstein took ivermectin during a livestream video and said both he and his wife had not been vaccinated because of their fears concerning
COVID-19 vaccines.
[58] YouTube demonetized the couple's channels in response to their claims about ivermectin. Afterward, Weinstein and Heying moved their subsequent broadcasts to the fringe alternative video sharing platform
Odysee.
[55] In August 2021, Weinstein said he had misstated that a study had shown a 100% effective ivermectin
protocol for the prevention of COVID.
[52][59] Weinstein considers himself a supporter of vaccines in general; he believes
mRNA vaccines have promise despite what he claims are "some clear design flaws".
[43] Weinstein has falsely claimed that the
spike protein produced by or contained within COVID-19 vaccines is "very dangerous" and "
cytotoxic".
[60][61][62] Weinstein has said that ivermectin alone is "good enough to end the pandemic at any point" and claimed that the drug's true effectiveness against COVID-19 was being suppressed in order to push vaccines for the financial benefit of
Big Pharma.
[63] He has told Fox News'
Tucker Carlson that if ivermectin functioned as he thought it did, then "the debate about the vaccines would be over by definition."
[64]