As many of you know I am a physician … albeit a retired physician. To me being an M.D. is kind of like being a marine – “once a marine, always a marine!”
However, since I am retired, I no longer have the ability to prescribe meds. Nonetheless, I can still fall back on my fund of medical knowledge and my medical experience to make recommendations and suggestions when asked.
I have had documented Covid twice. During the first episode years ago, I did not have any accessibility to get some Ivermectin, as the FDA, in essence, forbade it’s use to treat Covid. However, during my recent second Covid infection, I was able to get a supply of Ivermectin, which I took over four days as directed. The purpose of this piece is not to convince anyone that the Ivermectin can significantly and quickly alleviate Covid symptoms .. although that’s exactly what did happen for me – but rather to ask, “What in the hell was the FDA doing? Where did the FDA get the authority to tell any physician that they could not prescribe Ivermectin for Covid?” Perhaps, even more important is why did the FDA assume some authority that they clearly never had … and still do not have?
Furthermore the FDA refuses to let bygones be bygones. They are still adamant that they had some authority to forbid the use of Ivermectin … which they clearly did not have. Perhaps at this point they should simply said, “The FDA was wrong about Ivermectin and its use in Covid. We apologize, and will not overstep our authority in the future.”
If the FDA recanted and seemed sorry, many might forgive them. However, they are recalcitrant, and continue to be adamant that they were right. … Why?
Presently, in Texas, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking to persuade a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit challenging its repeated advisories against using ivermectin to treat COVID-19. The suit
was brought by three doctors who allege the FDA’s warnings concerning Ivermectin were illegal.
“The FDA exceeded its authority by repeatedly issuing public directives not to use ivermectin for COVID-19, even though the drug remains fully approved for human use,” the attorneys for the doctors stated.
The government motion to dismiss came after an appeals court found that the FDA likely overstepped its authority with the warnings.
“FDA can inform, but it has identified no authority allowing it to recommend consumers ’stop’ taking medicine,” U.S. Circuit Judge Don Willett, an appointee of then-President Donald Trump, wrote in the ruling.
According to lawyers for the doctors, the FDA’s motion includes the argument that the plaintiffs haven’t suffered injuries that are traceable to the FDA and that can’t be remedied by a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs.””The FDA is wrong,” the lawyers said. “Plaintiffs have suffered interference with their practice of medicine and the doctor-patient relationship, economic harm, reputational harm, and increased exposure to malpractice liability, and have been subject to disciplinary proceedings and forced resignations, all of which clearly trace to the FDA’s campaign against ivermectin and would be remedied by equitable relief.”
Certainly in individual cases it would be impossible to prove that that individual would have done better if they had had access to Ivermectin.
However, I continue to be suspicious that something, perhaps even something illegal, occurred with the FDA’s position on Ivermectin, and the more adamant the FDA continues to be, the more my suspicion increases.
1/19/24