Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been a number of miracle cures and treatments touted as a way to prevent serious consequences from the virus.
From Regeneron to horse dewormers, medical professionals have been shooting down all sorts of wild attempts at beating this novel and deadly strain of coronavirus. The latest, a largely veterinary drug called ivermectin, gained a great deal of fame this week when podcast host and standup comedian Joe Rogan admitted to taking it when he came down with COVID.
Now, the American Medical Association is issuing a major warning.
“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 AMA said in a statement in conjunction with the American Pharmacists Association and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
The groups want doctors to stop prescribing ivermectin, pharmacists to stop filling prescriptions, and for people in both professions to work on educating the public.
Amazon, meanwhile, says it will tweak autocomplete responses about the drug. If someone searches “ivermectin for COVID,” for example, they will get no results and instead be referred to the FDA website, per USA Today.
The news comes just days after the FDA issued a stark and snarky tweet about the trend:
https://twitter.com/US_FDA/status/1429050070243192839?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1429050070243192839%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsteadfastdaily.com%2Fmedical-professionals-issue-stern-warning-after-joe-rogan-uses-ivermectin%2F
