What Is Ivermectin? Dr. Fauci Warns Against Taking Horse Drug As COVID Treatment Amid ‘Tragic’ Deaths

Infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday warned against taking the horse dewormer drug ivermectin to protect them against COVID-19.

The anti-parasite drug has been lauded as a miracle treatment for COVID-19, but Fauci wants people to know it couldn’t be further from the truth. Fauci appeared on the CNN program “State of the Union” and advised Americans to refrain from taking ivermectin.

“Don’t do it,” he said. “There is no evidence whatsoever that that works.”

Fauci revealed people may end up harming themselves rather than treating a COVID-19 infection.

“And it could potentially have toxicity, as you just mentioned, with people who have gone to poison control centers because they’ve taken the drug at a ridiculous dose and wind up getting sick," he explained. “There is no clinical evidence that indicates that this works.”

Fauci went on to reflect on how unfortunate it is that people have died due to misinformation about ivermectin.

“It’s tragic, because you don’t want to see anybody, regardless of what their position is or their ideology, you don’t want to see anybody get sick and die, particularly as a physician and scientist,” Fauci said.

“I do everything in my entire career to safeguard the health of people and to save lives. So even if they have views that I completely disagree with, it’s really a tragedy to see them get sick and dying fundamentally because they’re putting aside and avoiding the public health principles that we talk about all the time."

Fauci’s warning against taking ivermectin comes after the Food and Drug Administration shared a tweet in an attempt to shut down misinformation about the drug.

“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it,” the FDA tweeted last week along with an article explaining why ivermectin shouldn’t be taken.

The FDA has no data that supports the use of ivermectin will treat or prevent COVID-19. Taking a drug that has not been approved by the federal health agency could be dangerous and even lead to death.