The US Food and Drug Administration issued a plea on Saturday for Americans to stop taking a popular anti-parasitic drug for livestock to treat or prevent COVID-19.
“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it,” the agency tweeted.
In an accompanying statement, the FDA said it received multiple reports of patients who were treated or hospitalized after “self-medicating with ivermectin intended for horses.”
“It’s perhaps not surprising that some consumers are looking at unconventional treatments,” the FDA said. “There seems to be a growing interest in a drug called ivermectin to treat humans with COVID-19.”
