Posted on 08/11/2023 9:13:06 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Doctors are free to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID-19, a lawyer representing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said this week.
“FDA explicitly recognizes that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID,” Ashley Cheung Honold, a Department of Justice lawyer representing the FDA, said during oral arguments on Aug. 8 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.
The government is defending the FDA’s repeated exhortations to people to not take ivermectin for COVID-19, including a post that said “Stop it.”
The case was brought by three doctors who allege the FDA unlawfully interfered with their practice of medicine with the statements.
A federal judge dismissed the case in 2022, prompting an appeal.
“The fundamental issue in this case is straightforward. After the FDA approves the human drug for sale, does it then have the authority to interfere with how that drug is used within the doctor-patient relationship? The answer is no,” Jared Kelson, representing the doctors, told the appeals court.
The FDA on Aug. 21, 2021, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter:
“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”
The post, which linked to an FDA page that says people shouldn’t use ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19, went viral.
You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it. https://t.co/TWb75xYEY4 — U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) August 21, 2021
In other statements, the FDA said that ivermectin “isn’t authorized or approved to treat COVID-19” and “Q: Should I take ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19? A: No.”
“FDA made these statements in response to multiple reports of consumers being hospitalized, after self medicating with ivermectin intended for horses, which is available for purchase over the counter without the need for prescription,” Ms. Honold said.
A version of the drug for animals is available, but ivermectin is approved by the FDA for human use against diseases caused by parasites.
Ms. Honold said that the FDA didn’t purport to require anyone to do anything or to prohibit anyone from doing anything.
“What about when it said, ‘No, stop it’?” Circuit Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, on the panel that is hearing the appeal, asked.
“Why isn’t that a command? If you were in English class, they would say that was a command.”
Ms. Honold described the statements as “merely quips.”
“Can you answer the question, please? Is that a command, ‘Stop it’?” Judge Elrod asked.
“In some contexts, those words could be construed as a command,” Ms. 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.”
The statements “don’t prohibit doctors from prescribing ivermectin to treat COVID or for any other purpose” Ms. Honold said. She noted that the FDA, along with the statements, said that people should consult their health care providers about COVID-19 treatments and that they could take medicine if it was prescribed by the provider.
“FDA is clearly acknowledging that doctors have the authority to prescribe human ivermectin to treat COVID. So they are not interfering with the authority of doctors to prescribe drugs or to practice medicine,” she said.
Judge Elrod is on the panel with Circuit Judges Edith Brown Clement and Don Willett. All three were appointed under President Donald Trump.
The plaintiffs are Drs. Paul Marik, Mary Bowden, and Robert Apter. They say they were professionally harmed by the FDA’s statements, including being terminated over efforts to prescribe ivermectin to patients.
Dr. Marik has noted that a number of studies support using ivermectin against COVID-19, as the FDA itself has acknowledged. Some other studies show little to no effect.
Federal law enables the FDA to provide information, such as reports of adverse reactions to drugs, but not medical advice, Mr. Kelson said.
“This is something the FDA has never been able to do. And it’s a bright line,” he told the court, adding later:
“The clearest examples of where they have gone over the line are when they say things like, ‘You are not a horse, you are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.'”
Judges indicated they agree that the FDA lacks the power to give medical advice; Judge Clement said, “You’re not authorized to give medical advice.”
But Ms. Honold said the government “isn’t conceding that in this case.”
She also argued that Congress has empowered the FDA to protect public health and make sure regulated products are safe and effective, giving it the “inherent authority to further its mission by communicating information to the public about safe uses of drugs.”
A ruling in favor of the doctors would prevent the FDA from reporting on consumers suffering after cooking chicken with NyQuil or that opioid addiction is a problem, she claimed.
Mr. Kelson said that wasn’t accurate. “It’s when they step beyond that [and] start telling people how they should or should not be using approved drugs,” he said.
Ms. Honold also said that the courts can’t hold agencies accountable when they provide false or misleading information: “The FDA is politically accountable, just like all other executive agencies.”
People need to be executed.
Treating a pesky virus with a survival rate of only 99.7% should not have been a issue.
It’s just unreal.
Hospitals wouldn’t allow Covid patients to get Ivermectin, which caused unnecessary deaths.
Even pharmacies would override doctors’ prescriptions and wouldn’t dispense it for newly diagnosed people. They had to find secret sources. It was ridiculous.
It was so evil, and the culprits should be held accountable.
The guy who discovered Ivermectin should be awarded a second Nobel Peace Prize.
Nice. Now they just have to build a time machine.
Something is up for them to do that...likely they know that there are people, somewhere, maybe judges somewhere, ready to hold them PERSONALLY accountable.
Otherwise, NO WAY, they’d move out with this crap.
Justice delayed is justice denied.
Yes, it’s unreal until I think about visiting with one of my loved ones who died and remember, once again, that they aren’t here to visit with anymore.
Then it’s real again.
Ms. Honold lies through her teeth.
Too late.
Can anyone point to a single death or illness caused by IVM?
What are they ‘allowing’? there doesn’t seem to be a ruling mentioned in the article.
The title seems a little misleading. Ask your doctor if he’ll prescribe ivermectin for Covid, now. I guess the answer will generally be ‘no’.
“People need to be executed.”
Don’t read into this. It is not saying that doctors are treating covid with the drug, just that as doctors they can prescribe anything they want if it does no harm. They can prescribe sugar pills for a drowned and resuscitated victim if they wish. If won’t do anything, but they can send the patient on their merry way with scripts whether they do anything about the problem or not.
Ivermectin tablets are approved by the FDA to treat people with intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis, two conditions caused by parasitic worms. The drug ivermectin, isn’t used to treat viruses. And studies by facilities like the University of Kansas Medical Center found that ivermectin has no measurable effect in improving COVID-19 outcomes.
https://www.kumc.edu/about/news/news-archive/jama-ivermectin-study.html
This court case was based upon the doctor’s ability to prescribe anything they wish as long as it does no harm.
wy69
I am spitting with rage. Yes, they do my friend. Yes they do.
And to think, during the “Scamdemic” Ivermectin was tightly controlled just so they could have a body count to blame on Trump.
I think the doctors are under pressure from the hospitals and medical boards not to prescribe. If they do, they can lose their privileges and/or license.
The government now says it isn’t us saying doctors can’t prescribe it. However, you can bet they are threating the hospitals and pharmacies with government review and audits if they allow doctors to prescribe it.
Their ‘claim’ has always been something to the effect that they never ‘banned’ Ivermectin, rather they instead ‘recommended’ against Covid. Of course, in the medical world, the only people who go against FDA ‘recommendations’ are those who have a ton of money safely squirreled away from view of Bankruptcy Courts...which means, basically, no one.
Now the idea is that they are going further and are in the process of claiming that they ‘never’ said anything negative about Ivermectin for Covid.
My guess is that there are finally studies about to come out proving the ‘conspiracy theorists’ were right along regarding Ivermectin.
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