The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned on Saturday against using ivermectin, a parasitic treatment typically used for animals, for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19 caused by the coronavirus. The warning came a day after the Mississippi Department of Health issued a similar statement in response to reports that an increasing number of people in the state were using the drug to prevent COVID-19 infection, according to The New York Times.
The National Institutes of Health stated in February that most studies related to ivermectin and the virus "contain incomplete information and significant methodological limitations," including results from studies that encouraged its use, which are mostly unclear. Ivermectin, primarily used to treat parasitic worms, has been heavily promoted as a potential treatment for COVID-19, but recent studies have shown its effectiveness to be very weak, and it has not been authorized for such use.
The FDA also tweeted: "You are not a horse. You are not a cow... stop it." The agency noted that it had received multiple reports of individuals "requiring medical support and hospitalization after self-medicating with ivermectin," emphasizing that "taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm."
Additionally, the FDA has granted emergency use authorizations for three vaccines against COVID-19 to prevent the disease. Since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of over 630,000 people in the United States, with more than 37.6 million reported cases nationwide, according to NBC News.
