Galveston Island, TX – February 14, 2023

On February 14, 2023, our America’s Frontline Doctors’ (AFLDS) legal team proudly submitted an updated amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, 2-14-2023, 22-40802, CA5, on appeal from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, (Galveston Division) for Robert L. Apter, et al. v. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), et al., No. 3:22-cv-184 (S.D. Tx., June 2, 2022), 22-40802, CA5. Here is a link to the complete AFLDS amicus curiae brief.

As mentioned in our prior press release, dated Oct. 12, 2022 (at which time we filed our first amicus curiae brief for this case), the complaint was filed in June 2022 by the firm Boyden Gray & Associates PLLC. Here is a link to our prior press release

Boyden Gray represents the plaintiff group, which consists of three courageous medical freedom fighters, including Dr. Robert L. Apter, Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, and Dr. Paul E. Marik. The doctors seek the right to prescribe ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19 while simultaneously reminding the court of their legal right to do so as licensed medical practitioners. Also, notwithstanding being previously threatened with and subjected to professional discipline for prescribing ivermectin, the doctors forge on in their brave legal fight. They are challenging the FDA’s slanderous anti-ivermectin propaganda campaign – an unjustifiable smear campaign which the doctors allege is the primary impetus behind a plethora of hostile threats and attacks levelled against them by colleagues and state medical boards.

The doctors state the FDA violated the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act) by implementing the aggressive (and likely illegal) anti-ivermectin propaganda campaign in an intentional effort to confuse the public and healthcare providers by mocking, deriding, and minimizing the superior medicinal qualities of the 2015 Nobel Prize-winning ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19. The doctors cite multiple sources of flawed and distorted FDA publications that make outlandish claims such as, “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it”, and “You should not take any medicine to treat or prevent COVID-19 unless it has been prescribed to you by your health care provider and acquired from a legitimate source.” However, each of the plaintiff doctors have successfully treated thousands of COVID-19 patients during the pandemic with ivermectin. 

The case, unfortunately, was dismissed on December 6, 2022, by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown, who ruled in favour of the defendant-FDA’s claim of sovereign immunity (meaning the FDA or government is immune from any legal wrongdoing). The doctors filed an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and Boyden Gray requested AFLDS’s legal team to file a second, updated amicus curiae brief. We were more than happy to oblige.

We at AFLDS disagree with Judge Brown that sovereign immunity can shield the FDA from egregious and likely illegal conduct. We believe the FDA’s relentless anti-ivermectin propaganda campaign not only infringes on doctors’ free speech rights and harms doctors, but it also harms those most in need – the countless numbers of patients who can benefit from the doctor-prescribed, life-saving miracle drug ivermectin.  

As stated by an AFLDS-affiliated attorney, "It is shocking that in America, critically ill patients were forced to hire attorneys to go to court to obtain access to legal lifesaving medications such as ivermectin, legally prescribed by their doctors. Sadly, many of these patients passed away before their court proceedings were completed. This egregious interference with the practice of medicine and other real-world harms such as the unfair harassment of doctors by their medical boards, is fairly traceable to the illegal FDA propaganda campaign waged against ivermectin and must never be allowed to happen again." 

Our updated AFLDS amicus curiae brief includes new and compelling ivermectin research and case law that strongly buttresses the doctors’ case, and we hope the Fifth Circuit concurs. AFLDS shall continue to support these remarkably valiant and highly competent doctors, and all other doctors who bravely file lawsuits against constitutional infringements and medical tyranny.                                                                       

For reliable and accurate information regarding AFLDS, please consult our website, AFLDS.org.

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About AFLDS 

America's Frontline Doctors is the nation's independent authority on ethical and transparent standards in science, health, and human rights. We provide individuals with unbiased and accurate information from the world's top experts in medicine and law so you can be empowered with facts to protect your rights, take care of your health, and safeguard your future. AFLDS.org    

Media Contact Lisa Alexander, Communications Director | Media@AFLDS.org