India TV Fact Check: Social media platforms have become a primary source of misleading information. We found one such social media post, in which an allopathic drug 'Ivermectin' is claimed to be helpful for corona treatment. The post claimed that it can be used in the treatment of deadly diseases like corona and it has been approved by the US agency FDA. Interestingly, when we fact-checked the viral post, the claim proved to be completely false.
What does the viral post claim?
A user with the username @wabbitwarrior on the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) shared a report and said, "Remember when it was horsepaste? When everyone called you an idiot for even considering it when there was this "miracle vaccine?" Remember when it was demonized? Yeah, so the FDA finally approved it." The report that the user shared on the social media platform read, "FDA explicitly recognizes that doctors do have the authority to prescribe Ivermectin to treat COVID."
India TV did a fact check
When we clicked on the link of the report shared by the user, we found that the claim that 'the FDA has approved the use of Ivermectin to treat Covid' is based on a court submission by Ashley Cheung Honold. Ashley Cheung Honold is an attorney of the Department of Justice representing the FDA in the US Court. Significantly, three US doctors had filed a case accusing the FDA of wrongfully interfering in their medical practice. In his argument, Honold said, "The FDA clearly believes that doctors have the authority to prescribe Ivermectin to treat COVID."
FDA has no right to stop doctors
When we started searching on the internet regarding FDA and Ivermectin, many reports appeared. After reading them, it was understood that there are many flaws in the way in which this claim is being made on the basis of the lawyer's argument in the viral post. First of all, the FDA has never had the authority to prevent doctors from prescribing FDA-approved drugs like Ivermectin for off-label use. The FDA regulates only how drug makers can advertise and label their drugs to the general public and doctors.
This is described in a 2009 Congressional Research Service report on the off-label use of drugs. It reads, "A doctor may prescribe a drug for off-label use, a pharmaceutical manufacturer may not market or promote the use of a drug other than those on the label—the only use the FDA has approved in this application."
Ivermectin was not approved for the treatment of covid
After this, we went to the FDA website and carefully read its instruction written about Ivermectin. The FDA has not prohibited doctors from prescribing this drug, but it has definitely been told that the FDA has not approved this drug for COVID-19 treatment.
Then where did the lawyer's argument come from?
The FDA's recent "approval" claiming that doctors are now allowed to prescribe the drug to treat COVID-19 is linked to a federal court lawsuit filed by three doctors against the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In it, the three doctors claimed that there is an unconstitutional interference with their right to practice due to federal interference caused by FDA's statements against Ivermectin.
The doctors who filed this case lost the case in December 2022. They appealed against the decision. Oral arguments for the matter were first held on August 8, 2023. A statement made during these arguments gave rise to this false claim about the FDA in August 2023.
Therefore, the claim in India TV Fact Check that the FDA has approved Ivermectin for the treatment of Corona proved to be completely misleading. The FDA has not approved ivermectin to treat the virus. The safety or efficacy of Ivermectin for coronavirus is not clear from clinical studies and scientific evidence.
