The FDA removed posts from X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn that stated: "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously y'all. Stop it."

The posts had remained up even after the regulatory agency agreed to take them down as part of a settlement in a legal case brought by doctors who said the posts wrongly interfered with their practice of medicine.

The March 21 settlement said the FDA would take down specific posts within 21 days. The posts were made in August 2021.

The FDA has also deleted the following posts:

An Aug. 21, 2021, Instagram post that said: "You are not a horse. Stop it with the #ivermectin. It's not authorized for treating #COVID."

An April 26, 2022, Twitter post that said: "Hold your horses ya'll. Ivermectin may be trending, but it still isn't authorized or approved to treat COVID-19."

The posts directed people to an FDA webpage titled, "Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19." The page itself acknowledged that the FDA has approved ivermectin for some uses but said "taking a drug for an unapproved use can be very dangerous" and "currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19."

The agency pointed to a database of clinical trials testing ivermectin against COVID-19; some of the trials showed the drug works against the illness.

Doctors commonly prescribe FDA-approved drugs for a range of purposes, including some outside the scope of approval. The practice is known as off-label prescription.