2021/07/28/Why is the FDA attacking a safe effective drug

• when: 2021-07-28
• author: David R. Henderson and Charles L. Hooper
• source: Wall Street Journal
• topics: ivermectin
• keywords: editorial
• link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-ivermectin-covid-19-coronavirus-masks-anti-science-11627482393
• title: Why Is the FDA Attacking a Safe, Effective Drug?
• summary: «The Food and Drug Administration claims to follow the science. So why is it attacking ivermectin, a medication it certified in 1996?» Short Answer: It isn't, and this opinion-piece is stuffed full of misleading claims.

Short Answer: The FDA is not attacking the drug. It's trying to warn people against taking animal-approved formulations of it (which has been happening due to the influence of articles like this) for a purpose for which the drug has not yet been shown to be safe and effective. Many studies are under way – but the data have not yet come in, and the FDA is acting entirely appropriately in that light.

Links

• 2021-08-02 Attack on Ivermectin – With insights from The Wall Street Journal by Jarryd Neves: no, the piece was not written by the WSJ; it was an outside editorial.
• 2021-07-29
  • Misleading and Dishonest Wall Street Journal Article on Ivermectin (video) by Hank Green
  • How Scientific is the FDA? by David Henderson, one of the authors of the WSJ piece

Discussion

• Reddit
• Hacker News:
  • 2021-08-03 "Bullshit article. the FDA isn't attacking, they're pointing out that a drug certified for treating roundworm and similar parasitic infections is not certified for treating COVID-19, and that relying on it for that purpose might turn out badly. / From the headline onwards, this whole article is concern trolling..."
  • 2021-07-30 "In Brazil, there are people needing liver transplantation because they used Ivermectin to "treat" Covid."
• Prashant Bushan on Twitter "Ivermectin is a promising Covid treatment and prophylaxis, but the agency is denigrating it. / No doubt that FDA is acting under the influence of big Pharma and vaccine companies." Um, there is no evidence for this at all.