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FDA Lawyer Makes Surprising Argument About Ivermectin

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  August 15, 2023 3:00 PM

While there are mixed findings on the efficacy of ivermectin in treating COVID-19, many doctors weren’t even able to prescribe the drug to their patients during the pandemic because the government and large medical associations advised against it, physician practices and hospitals wouldn’t allow it and terminated those who tried, and, even if a person was able to acquire a prescription for it, major pharmacies wouldn’t fill them.  

In a viral tweet from August 2021, the Food and Drug Administration advised, "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it,” linking to a page on FDA’s website about how the antiparasitic drug, which has been around for decades, should not be used to prevent or treat COVID-19. There are versions of the drug used to treat animals and humans.  

But DOJ attorney Ashley Cheung Honold, representing the FDA, claimed during oral arguments in a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, that doctors actually can prescribe the drug for off-label use.

“FDA explicitly recognizes that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID,” she said.

Honold said the agency's exhortations were made amid reports that people were self-medicating with the animal-use ivermectin and becoming hospitalized.  

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The three doctors who brought the case allege the FDA illegally interfered in their practice of medicine. A federal judge dismissed the case last year, which brought about the appeal. 

One of the judges on the panel hearing the case asked about the use of the phrase in the viral tweet, “Stop it.”  

“Why isn’t that a command? If you were in English class, they would say that was a command,” Circuit Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod said. 

Honold dismissed the FDA’s statements as "quips."

“In some contexts, those words could be construed as a command,” Honold said. “But in this context, where FDA was simply using these words in the context of a quippy tweet meant to share its informational article, those statements do not rise to the level of a command.”

Honold also made the argument that agencies can't be held accountable by the courts for false or misleading statements because FDA, for instance, "is politically accountable, just like all other executive agencies," The Epoch Times reports. 

Noteworthy segments of the oral arguments were shared on social media.