Dennis Prager Catches COVID, Says He 'Wanted' to Contract Virus to Get Natural Immunity
Conservative talk show host Dennis Prager announced on Monday during his daily nationally syndicated radio program that he had contracted COVID-19.
A vocal opponent of coronavirus vaccine mandates, especially for young people and those previously infected with the virus, Prager, 73, has refused the vaccine and intentionally sought speaking engagements and events throughout the pandemic whenever and wherever he could.
“I have hugged thousands of strangers … at rallies around the country. I have posed for photos with strangers in the thousands at speeches. And finally I got it from somebody,” he said while broadcasting the show from his home on Monday.
The radio host said he had taken the monoclonal antibody treatment Regeneron, which he said President Joe Biden has made “almost impossible for people to get … because the man is evil.”
From the start of the pandemic, Prager has been a harsh critic of the Democrats’ response to COVID-19 — such as small-business-crushing lockdowns and vaccine and mask mandates — but an enthusiastic promoter of therapeutics to treat the virus.
He began taking hydroxychloroquine prophylactically shortly after then-President Donald Trump mentioned in a March 19, 2020, news conference that the anti-malarial drug could prove to be a promising treatment for COVID-19.
Prager has interviewed prominent proponents for HCQ on his show, particularly Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, who came up with the “Zelenko Protocol,” a concoction of low-dose hydroxychloroquine, zinc and azithromycin that he said resulted in fewer hospitalizations when given in the early stages of mild-to-moderate COVID infection.
And in November 2020, Prager added ivermectin to his personal regimen.
“I believe that what I had decided to do over the course of the last year-and-a-half, I believe, has been justified,” Prager said at his show’s opening on Monday. “I wanted to achieve natural immunity, which is by far the more robust immunity that one could have against COVID or any virus.”
He referenced a recent piece published in The Washington Post in which Dr. Marty Makary, a professor at the John Hopkins School of Medicine, argued the superiority of natural immunity over vaccination.
Makary cited over 15 studies supporting his assertion, including a recent 700,000-person study in Israel that found that those previously infected with COVID-19 were 27 times less likely to contract the virus again than those who were vaccinated.
Prager most likely contracted COVID-19 while at a campaign event in Colorado on Oct. 10 with Republican Colorado gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, the front-running challenger to Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ re-election, according to the Denver Gazette.
NEW: Conservative talk radio host @DennisPrager says he tested positive for COVID-19 last week, days after appearing at a Colorado fundraiser for @heidiganahl. Prager said he intentionally contracted COVID-19 by engaging with, hugging, and taking photos with people. #copolitics pic.twitter.com/FAKPMjZVlR
— Kyle Clark (@KyleClark) October 18, 2021
The hourlong “sold-out” campaign event, called “The Future of Colorado,” was held at a Marriott hotel in Colorado Springs with about 100 attendees.
A representative of Ganahl’s campaign told the Gazette, “We have not been made aware of anyone who attended the event outside of Dennis’ inner circle getting the virus. We are reaching out to all those who attended to make sure they are informed.”
On Friday, Colorado had the 14th-highest rate in the nation for COVID infections, the outlet reported, with 71.6 percent of eligible Coloradans fully vaccinated, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health.
While up on stage with Ganahl, Prager ironically said, “I’ve been trying to get COVID for a year-and-a-half.”
Although Prager strongly opposes the Biden administration’s draconian vaccine mandates and the media’s fear-mongering regarding the virus and its demonizing of unvaccinated Americans, he has never insisted that the listeners to his program follow his example and forgo the vaccine.
“If you have co-morbidities or are of a certain age, and you are not prepared to take the therapeutics, you should consider taking the vaccine. That would be my position,” Prager said during his radio show Monday.
“It can hurt you. I know people that it has hurt. But it can also help. It’s somewhat of a crapshoot. But I don’t want you to take nothing,” he said.
“I think I am a living example of how effective taking these therapeutics is. I am not young. I admit I am healthy otherwise, but I am in the category of people who should be most concerned, theoretically,” Prager said. “And I am concerned. That’s why I’ve been taking all these therapeutics.”
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