Doctors fight FDA in court to use ivermectin for COVID patients
Interview with plaintiff Dr. Mary Talley Bowden after court with federal government
The COVID doctors suing the FDA over the drug ivermectin are now fighting in federal court to resist the government’s efforts to get their case dismissed. There was a hearing on Tuesday at the Galveston Federal Courthouse over whether the lawsuit can go forward.
I interviewed Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, one of the plaintiffs in the case after she left the hearing. Watch the video – on Rumble below – to learn why she is suing the FDA, how she treats her patients with ivermectin for COVID-19 and the government and pharmacy obstacles to prescribing the medications. Click the photo below to go to the video.
The government’s filing and the lawsuit are both in my sources at the bottom.
After this story was published, Bowden posted the transcript from the hearing on her Substack here: https://open.substack.com/pub/drbowden/p/the-fda-is-not-your-doctor?
Doctors sue FDA
As I first wrote last June, the doctors are suing the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for directing and opining that ivermectin should not be used for the off-label purposes of treating COVID-19.
The lawsuit is based on a federal law that says that the FDA cannot: “interfere with the authority of a health care practitioner to prescribe or administer any legally marketed device to a patient for any condition or disease within a legitimate health care practitioner-patient relationship.”
FDA on defense
The HHS and FDA attorneys asked Judge Jeffrey V. Brown to dismiss the case “for lack of subject matter jurisdiction or, in the alternative, for failure to state a claim.”
Judge Brown, who was appointed by Pres. Donald Trump, overturned Pres. Joe Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate for federal workers in January.
Dr. Bowden said that the government argued in court that its social media campaign and its lengthy website called “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19” are not official statements.
It claimed that the end of the website that says “Talk to your health care provider about available COVID-19 vaccines and treatment options….” shows it is not violating the law by interfering with the practitioner-patient relationship
Also, the government argues that the infamous tweet — below— with the horse and a woman with a stethoscope that says, “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it” links to that website that says talk to your doctor, so it is not giving official guidance.
Ivermectin debate
You’ll notice the FDA tweet — look closely above — says that treating COVID with ivermectin could be “lethal.”
“Ivermectin is not dangerous. It’s safer than Tylenol,” Bowden said. “You’d have to take 250 times the dosage to risk death.” Watch our interview for more specifics on her experience using the drug.
Bowden pointed out in my interview that up to 40% of medications are prescribed off-label, and the FDA does not speak out about them on social media. She explains in my interview how she can’t get her prescriptions for ivermectin filled at any major pharmacy chains because of the FDA’s campaign.
She said that in the court hearing the government asserted that, although the doctors’ licenses are under investigation for prescribing ivermectin, no disciplinary action has been taken. Bowden said that the year-long investigation has prevented her from hiring a nurse practitioner at her private practice in Houston and getting any hospital privileges
In addition to Dr. Bowden, the plaintiffs are Dr. Paul E. Marik and Dr. Robert L. Apter. They are represented by Boyden Gray and Associates, a prestigious law firm in Washington, D.C. headed by the former White House counsel to Pres. George H. W. Bush. The suit was filed in the U.S. Southern District of Texas because that is where Bowden’s private practice, BreatheMD, is located.