FDA’s Anti-Ivermectin ‘You Are Not a Horse’ Post Remains Up as Court Order Deadline Looms

Ivermectin tablets packaged for human use. (Natasha Holt/The Epoch Times)

Eleven days after a court-ordered settlement required the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to remove all social media and directives regarding ivermectin, a webpage and its most infamous post remains online, advising people against the use of the popular drug.

After years of controversy over using ivermectin to fight COVID-19, the FDA agreed to remove its social media posts urging people to stop using the drug, according to a settlement filed with federal court in southern Texas dated March 21.

The agency has already removed a page that said: “Should I take ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19? No.” However, its Aug. 21, 2021, post on X (formerly Twitter)—in which the FDA wrote: “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously y’all. Stop it”—continues to remain live on the social media platform.

At the time of publication, the post had been reposted more than 67,000 times.

Further, a page on the agency’s website titled “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19” also remains live, in which the agency states that the “FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals.” The page also says no data exist showing ivermectin to be effective against COVID-19, despite studies that show the drug to be effective against the disease.

Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a practitioner in Texas and founder of the Coalition of Health Freedom, told The Epoch Times that she believes the agency is delaying the inevitable to avoid further public ridicule.

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“My guess is they’re hoping all the negative publicity over the case will die down, and they can quietly remove them without as many people noticing,” said Dr. Bowden, who was among a group of doctors who initially filed a lawsuit against the FDA.

“We have three years of false propaganda to overcome regarding ivermectin,” she added.

According to the terms outlined in the settlement, the agency has 21 days to “delete and not republish” web pages and several media posts, including an April 26, 2022, social media post that reads: “Hold your horses y’all. Ivermectin may be trending, but it still isn’t authorized or approved to treat COVID-19.”

In exchange for removing the posts and webpages, doctors who sued the agency are dismissing their claims, the filing states.

An FDA spokesperson was not immediately available for comment but had previously told The Epoch Times in an email that the agency “has chosen to resolve this lawsuit rather than continuing to litigate over statements that are between two and nearly four years old.”

Ivermectin has been around for decades but became the center of controversy in 2020 after medical opinion became divided over its effectiveness as a treatment for COVID-19. In the aftermath, many pharmacists refused to fill prescriptions for the medication.

By 2023, the issue had made its way into a courtroom in a case brought by Dr. Bowden and other medical professionals when, on Aug. 8, a lawyer representing the FDA confirmed that doctors were free to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID-19.

“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, told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

Despite statements from the FDA affirming that right to doctors, many pharmacists nationwide continue to refuse to fill prescriptions for ivermectin issued to patients for the treatment of COVID-19, according to Dr. Bowden.

In most cases, according to Dr. Bowden, individual pharmacists aren’t to blame and often only carry out orders from corporate leadership. However, she claims to have also seen examples where pharmacists prevented her patients from getting their medication because of their own “personal agenda.”

Further, the longer the FDA posts remain up, the more difficult it is for physicians to ensure that patients receive the care needed, according to Dr. Bowden, who added that a pharmacist refused to fill an ivermectin prescription she had written last week.

“I’ve treated over 6,000 COVID patients using a combination of medications, including ivermectin,” said Dr. Bowden. “All of my patients who received early treatment are alive and well.

“The sooner they remove the posts, the better, but we have a lot of work to do to reeducate the public,” she added.

The FDA has until April 11 to delete the remaining posts, according to the settlement.