The American Medical Association is calling for the immediate end to the use of ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19.
The FDA has previously approved the drug to treat people with parasitic infections, but it has not been approved to prevent or treat COVID.
Some forms of ivermectin are used as veterinary medicine for horses.
The AMA, alongside the American Pharmacists Association and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, said the medication, while safe for animals, should not be used on humans. “We are alarmed by reports that outpatient prescribing for and dispensing of ivermectin have increased 24-fold since before the pandemic and increased exponentially over the past few months.”
The FDA has received reports of people being hospitalized for “self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses.”
“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it,” the FDA tweeted on August 21. “You may have heard that it’s okay to take large doses of ivermectin. That is wrong.”
The agency emphasized that no form of ivermectin has been approved for use as a COVID-19 treatment, saying that there is “a lot of misinformation” surrounding the drug’s usage.
The CDC warned about the potentially lethal side effects of the drug, including “nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Overdoses are associated with hypotension [low blood pressure] and neurologic effects such as decreased consciousness, confusion, hallucinations, seizures, coma and death.”
