Alex Jones appears to take ivermectin during a bizarre COVID-19 rant in which he defended Joe Rogan and called Fauci a 'murderer'

• Alex Jones went on an impassioned rant during an episode of his show InfoWars on Friday.
• Jones appeared to take ivermectin, a controversial and unproven treatment for COVID-19.
• The FDA has warned against treating COVID-19 with the drug, especially with versions intended for animals.

Far-right radio show host Alex Jones went on an impassioned tirade during an episode of his show Infowars on Friday, during which he appeared to take multiple pills of ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug that some are using to treat COVID-19 despite a lack of evidence showing its effectiveness against the disease.

In a video of the rant, which is sporadic and at times hard to follow, Jones presents two boxes of ivermectin and appears to take two of the tablets while railing against Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and billionaire Bill Gates, calling them "murderers."

"You want to suppress me, you want to kill me," he said. "You think I'm easy to kill?"

-Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 4, 2021

He goes on to shout "Nobel Prize-winning for humans" five times into the camera.

Ivermectin has been described in some media reports as a horse dewormer, but it's also used to treat some conditions in humans and is on the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines. Two scientists won a Nobel Prize in 2015 for discovering the drug.

However, it is not a proven treatment for COVID-19, and some people have been taking highly concentrated versions of ivermectin that are intended to treat parasites in horses and cows. Poison control centers have received a surge in calls related to overdoses of the drug, NPR reported.

The Food and Drug Administration has warned people against taking ivermectin to treat COVID-19, especially the versions intended for animals, but also the tablets intended for humans.

Jones defended podcast host Joe Rogan, who announced this week he was taking ivermectin, along with a host of other treatments, after testing positive for COVID-19.

He also shouted about how ivermectin has helped him and his family but that Fauci "doesn't want you to know because he wants the planet for himself and he wants you dead."

Last week, Fauci warned people against taking ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19 and said there was no clinical evidence indicating it works.

"Don't do it," Fauci told CNN. "There's no evidence whatsoever that that works and it could potentially have toxicity."