'You are not a cow!' FDA warns Americans to stop taking livestock de-wormer drug as an unproven treatment for COVID-19

  • The FDA says it has received reports of people self-medicating with Ivermectin, a drug intended for cows and horses
  • People took the anti-parasitic drug as they wrongly thought it could work against COVID-19
  • One person was hospitalized for ingesting the horse de-wormer medication to treat the virus 
  • An FDA warning said that ivermectin 'is not an anti-viral' and that 'taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm.' 
  • The agency has not approved ivermectin for use of treatment in COVID-19 patients

The FDA issued a bizarre warning on Saturday begging 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. 

Despite the lack of scientific evidence proving that ivermectin is effective at decreasing one's chances of catching or treating the virus, State Health Office Thomas Dobbs revealed there had been multiple cases in Mississippi of people taking the drug to treat the virus.

One person was even hospitalized for ingesting it; a 'kind of crazy' act he compared to 'getting chemotherapy at a feed store.' 

'Please don't do that,' he said. 

On Friday, Mississippi's state health department issued a statement on the COVID-19 treatment myth about ivermectin after cases of people consuming the drug in the state were reported. 

PICURED: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted a tweet on Saturday strongly recommending people to not take Ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19, referring that's mainly for animals

PICURED: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration posted a tweet on Saturday strongly recommending people to not take Ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19, referring that's mainly for animals

'At least 70 percent of the recent calls' to the state's poison center 'have been related' to the ingestion of ivermectin 'purchased at livestock supply centers,' according to Mississippi State Epidemiologist Paul Bryers' letter to the MS Health Alert Network.

The total number of cases related to ivermectin remains unknown. 

However, Byers esteemed that 85 percent of those who called the Mississippi Poison Control Center said they experienced mild symptoms from taking ivermectin, such as rash, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, neurological disorders, and potentially severe hepatitis requiring surgery. 

'Do NOT take drugs made for animals in any form,' the health department pleaded on Facebook.  

PICTURED: Tablets of Ivermectin. The medicine was authorized by the National Institute for Food and Drug Surveillance (INVIMA) to treat patients with mild symptoms in some countries, such as Colombia and India

PICTURED: Tablets of Ivermectin. The medicine was authorized by the National Institute for Food and Drug Surveillance (INVIMA) to treat patients with mild symptoms in some countries, such as Colombia and India

Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs called the hospitalization of one person in the state after ingesting Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 'a kind of crazy' act

Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs called the hospitalization of one person in the state after ingesting Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 'a kind of crazy' act 

Mississippi, the state with the worst outbreak in the U.S., is seeing a spike in ivermectin at a time in which Dobbs described as 'the worst part of the pandemic'. 

5,000 new COVID-19 related cases were reported in the state on Friday, taking its seven-day average for new positive patients to 3,586, according to collected data by The Washington Post.    

More than 1,600 people are critically-ill from the virus and about 450 beds in ICUs are filled as of Saturday. 

Nearly 90 percent of covid-19 hospitalizations and 86 percent of deaths in the state have been among unvaccinated people, Dobbs said. 

Dobbs, who has often voiced that vaccination remains 'our best way out of this pandemic,' added that nearly 90 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations and 86 percent of deaths in the state had been among unvaccinated people.

The National Institutes of Health claimed most studies on ivermectin's use to treat Covid-19 had 'significant limitations' and said there was not enough evidence to recommend either for or against the drug's use in the pandemic. 

An FDA warning added that ivermectin 'is not an anti-viral' and that 'taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm.' 

It also said that the drug is only used on humans to treat two specific conditions caused by parasitic worms. 

Mississippi has the highest number of infections per capita and holds the lowest rate of vaccination in the country.

Ivermectin is often used on horses and cows to treat against parasites in livestock

Ivermectin is often used on horses and cows to treat against parasites in livestock

Though the vaccination rate has recently increased, 45.1 percent of people have received at least one dose compared with the national average of 60.5 percent, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.

Ivermectin has been at the center of a somewhat polarizing debate between political talks show hosts, Democrats, Republicans and even scientists since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Between March and this month, Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham promoted the drug's use as an alternative COVID-19 treatment to their audiences on their prime-time shows.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Georgetown's University's Center for Global Health Science and Security, previously touted ivermectin as the 'new hydroxychloroquine,' referring to the malaria drug praised by former president Donald Trump that concluded to be ineffective against COVID-19. 

In June, Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) saw YouTube suspend his account for posting a video recommending viewers to take ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as treatments for the virus. 

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