by Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, America Outloud:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) deleted its infamous “You are not a horse” tweet in August 2021 and retired other publications about using ivermectin to treat COVID-19 following our landmark case, Apter v. Dep’t of Health and Human Services. My goal was to stop the FDA from giving unlawful medical advice and interfering with the doctor-patient relationship.
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On March 5, 2021, the FDA invaded my exam room. No shots were fired, but casualties resulted nonetheless. I fought back, and after a series of attacks and a long occupation, the FDA finally retreated and fled back to Washington, DC. Reconstruction may take longer than the war, but FDA overreach into my office and every doctor’s office in America was halted.
After the Pfizer shot went on the market, the FDA launched a PR campaign to foist itself between me and my patients. To this day, every time I prescribe ivermectin, I am reminded how this government agency unlawfully interfered in the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship, not only in my office but across the country.
As a licensed physician in Texas, I have successfully treated over 6,000 COVID-19 patients. Every patient whom I was able to treat early has survived. I’ve relied on an array of medicines, including ivermectin, an inexpensive drug the FDA approved for human use in 1987. Whether or not you believe ivermectin is an effective treatment for COVID-19 is beside the point: the FDA is not lawfully permitted to issue medical advice and interfere with the relationship between doctors and their patients.
The FDA’s role is to approve drugs, along with their labeling, for sale in America. It’s a gatekeeper, not a doctor. It has no authority to advise patients on what drug treatments to pursue and no accountability for patient outcomes. Yet it has repeatedly and unlawfully used its appearance of authority to deceive the public into thinking ivermectin is unsafe and unfit — even prohibited — for human consumption.
On its official website, the FDA published “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19” and FAQs asking “Should I take ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19?” with a decisive answer “No.” Missing from these webpages was the fact that the FDA cannot tell physicians or patients what medications to use or prohibit physicians from prescribing medications off-label.
On August 21, 2021, as COVID-19 cases surged for the third time since the pandemic started, the FDA launched a missile strike against ivermectin by broadcasting the now-infamous tweet featuring an attractive healthcare worker nuzzling a horse. Its caption (“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”) unequivocally directed the public not to use ivermectin to treat COVID-19.
The media embraced the horse theme with gusto. The tweet went viral, and ivermectin became known far and wide as only a horse dewormer. Reaching over twenty-four million people in less than a week, this tweet quickly became the most popular in FDA history.
On December 13, 2021, the FDA continued its attack, contacting the Federation of State Medical Boards and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy to warn against the use of ivermectin. Shortly thereafter, multiple doctors around the country, including myself, received formal complaints from their state medical boards regarding ivermectin prescriptions. I have continued to fight these charges.
Apart from the threats to my medical license, these government-funded directives on ivermectin have created unavoidable hurdles when treating my patients. Pharmacists won’t dispense it, and insurance companies won’t pay for it. Patients want reassurance that it’s safe, and I tell them it’s one of the safest medications I’ve ever prescribed.
Together with two other physicians experiencing the same difficulties, Dr. Robert Apter and Dr. Paul Marik, I took legal action against the FDA for their gross overreach. COVID-19 is not the first global pandemic, nor will it be the last. If the overreach of the FDA is not addressed now, its unlawful actions will no doubt continue, and doctors’ ability to practice medicine and help their patients will be restricted time and again.
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