FDA Says Telling People Not to Take Ivermectin for COVID-19 Was Just a Recommendation
By Zachary Stieber
November 19, 2022 Updated: November 19, 2022
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) telling people to “stop” taking ivermectin for COVID-19 was informal and just a recommendation, government lawyers argued during a recent hearing.
“The cited statements were not directives. They were not mandatory. They were recommendations. They said what parties should do. They said, for example, why you should not take ivermectin to treat COVID-19. They did not say you may not do it, you must not do it. They did not say it’s prohibited or it’s unlawful. They also did not say that doctors may not prescribe ivermectin,” Isaac Belfer, one of the lawyers, told the court during the Nov. 1 hearing in federal court in Texas.
“They use informal language, that is true,” he also said, adding that, “it’s conversational but not mandatory.”
The hearing was held in a case brought by three doctors who say the FDA illegally interfered with their ability to prescribe medicine to their patients when it issued statements on ivermectin, an anti-parasitic that has shown positive results in some trials against COVID-19.
Ivermectin is approved by the FDA but not for COVID-19. Drugs are commonly used for non-approved purposes in the United States; the practice is known as off-label treatment.
more
https://www.theepochtimes.com/fda-says-telling-people-not-to-take-ivermectin-for-covid-19-was-just-a-recommendation_4873897.html?utm_source=Morningbrief&src_src=Morningbrief&utm_campaign=mb-2022-11-20&src_cmp=mb-2022-11-20&utm_medium=email&est=2FTTx7XEMFFai%2FajXMWb0kzJHl%2FDhMGiVYtYGI4YbK9MF%2BRy0AZcfAXeSQR9ms8%3D