FDA settles in court and agrees to remove all social media posts and directives that claim you should not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19

Three Texas doctors, Robert L. Apter, Mary Talley Bowden, and Paul E. Marik, filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June 2022 regarding the FDA’s social media posts and directives advising against the use of Ivermectin for treating or preventing COVID-19. This legal action has resulted in a settlement between the doctors and the FDA.

The lawsuit was initially dismissed by a Texas U.S. District Judge, but it was later overturned by the Texas Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the “FDA is not a physician. It has authority to inform, announce, and apprise—but not to endorse, denounce, or advise. The doctors have plausibly alleged that the FDA’s posts fell on the wrong side of the line between telling about and telling to. As such, the doctors can use the APA to assert their ultra vires claims against the agencies and the officials.”