Court filing
Exhibit 21 (Doc 12) — FDA Internal Tweet Emails — Apter v. HHS
Filed August 8, 2022 in Apter v. Department of Health and Human Services; one of 66 filings from this case.
Record facts
| Court | U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Galveston Division |
|---|---|
| Filed | 2022-08-08 |
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Galveston Division · No. 3:22-cv-00184 · Doc. 12-21 · 2022-08-08 · Docket on CourtListener
Full text
Exhibit 21
Case 3:22-cv-00184 Document 12-21 Filed on 08/08/22 in TXSD Page 1 of 12
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U.S. FDA 0 @US_FDA · Aug21
You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it.
fda.gov
Why You Should Not Use lvermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19
Using the Drug ivermectin to treat COVID-19 can be dangerous and
even lethal. The FDA has not approved the drug for that purpose.
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Case 3:22-cv-00184 Document 12-21 Filed on 08/08/22 in TXSD Page 2 of 12
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RE: Sharing: FOA lvmr«tin/COVU),.19 TWl!il!I: Go@s ~
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M1ukup
I 1ust wanted to update you on some cool stats Brad just shared from the tweet today. Since we are a data driven agency, I thought you'd appreciate see,ng
some visuals on the numbers.
• Currently, it's the most popular post we've ever had on Twitter. There js a caveat with this statement given that today's vaccine approval is on its heels.
• All said, It looks like we gained a total of 1 lK followers across the accounts we posted these on. That's up 636. 7 from the two days prior. That growth Is
17.6K overall, including today's vaccine approval social posts.
All in a11, we're pleased with the response and the results here. It was also a perfect lead-in to today's vaccine approval, meaning we reached thousands more
than we might have had we not picked up some additional followers that were drawn in by the tweet.
Please let us know if you have any follow up questions.
Erica
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From: Woodcock, Janet <Janet.Woodcock:@fda.hhs.gov>
Sent: Sunday, August 22, 20211:15 PM
To: Jefferson, Erica <Erica.Jefferson@fda.hhs.gov>
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Subject: RE: Shadng: FDA lvermectin / COVJD-19 Tweet Goes Viral
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That was great! Even I saw itl Agree, we need to be creative and accessible! 'Excellent start ! jw
Case 3:22-cv-00184 Document 12-21 Filed on 08/08/22 in TXSD Page 5 of 12
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From: Jefferson, Erica <Erica.Jefferson@fda.hhs.gov>
Sent: Sunday, August 22, 202111:35 AM
To: Woodcock, Janet <Janet.Woodcock@fda.hhs.gov>
Cc: Tierney, Julia <Julia.Tierney@fda.hhs.gov>; Safford, Melissa <Melissa.Safford@fda.hhs.gov>;
Rebello, Heidi <Heidi.Rebello@fda.hhs.gov>; Mulieri, Chris <Charles.Mulieri@fda.hhs.gov>;
Kimberly, Brad <Brad.Kimberly@fda.hhs.gov>; Walsh, Sandy <Sandy.Walsh@fda.hhs.gov>;
Felberbaum, Michael <Michael.Felberbaum@fda.hhs.gov>
Subject: Sharing: FDA lvermectin / COVID-19 Tweet Goes Viral
Hi Dr. Woodcock,
I hope you are having a great weekend. I know we are all eager for tomorrow.
Separately and as you know, the OEA team and I have been meeting over the past several weeks to
discuss ways in which we can more effectively use our social media platforms to share important
public health information with consumers. I'm sure you saw some of the news coming out of
Mississippi on Friday regarding the use of ivermectin to treat/ prevent Covid-19 and the increase in
adverse events (poisonings) the state highlighted as a resu lt of its use. I expressed to the team late
Friday night that we take the opportunity to remind the public of our own warnings for ivermectin
and by early Saturday morning the social media team had posted the following tweet:
Needless to say, the direct, straight-forward and clever (humorous) communication, paired with a
follow-on tweet that provided additional answers to common questions about ivermectin, saw the
tweet quickly going viral and being shared across multiple social medium platforms (where it was
amplified by other influencers) and resulted in additional news coverage by: NYT CNN NBC News
and Rolling Stone to name a few. Notably, the official Today Show lnstagram account (3 million
followers) also featured an original post on the account. We also took the opportunity to highlight a
Consumer Update on ivermectin, that was prepared and distributed earlier this year. I'm pleased to
report that as a result of the tweet, the update was accessed 177k times yesterday alone.
By comparison, the tweet currently ranks as our 2nd most popular tweet of all time in terms of the
number of people we've reached with the content:
J&J Pause tweet - 20.4M
Not a Horse tweet - 14.SM
lmmunocompromised EUA FB - 10.8M
Case 3:22-cv-00184 Document 12-21 Filed on 08/08/22 in TXSD Page 6 of 12
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As you know, I am committed to identifying unique (for FDA) ways for us to reach the "everyday"
American to "brand" FDA. I am grateful the OEA team is enthusiastically supportive of this goal and
in particularly, I want to recognize Brad, Chris and Sandy, for mobilizing quickly Friday night and
Saturday morning to create a unique viral moment at such a critical time for the FDA's image and in
our fight against Covid-19. While we won't always be able to take this approach {we are still a
government entity), we will seek to develop content that allows the agency to feel both accessible
and informative in a time of incredible misinformation. We will be meeting with OCC soon to discuss
our new recommended approach for social media engagement. We look forward to sharing more
about these efforts in the weeks ahead, including an ambition effort to counter much of the vaccine
information out there as we prepare to approve Comiraty.
Please let me know if vou have anv questions in the interim. Thanks for vour support on our efforts
to evolve FDA's communications with consumers.
Best,
Erica
Erica V. Jefferson (she/her)
Associate Commissioner for External Affairs
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Tel: 240-702-3994
erica.jefferson@fda.hhs.goy
Case 3:22-cv-00184 Document 12-21 Filed on 08/08/22 in TXSD Page 7 of 12
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - In an article published Aug. 23, 2021, about
people taking livestock medicine to try to treat coronavirus, The
Associated Press erroneously reported based on information
provided by the Mississippi Department of Health that 70% of
recent calls to the Mississippi Poison Control Center were from
people who had ingested ivermectin to try to treat COVID-19. State
Epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said Wednesday the number of calls
to poison control about ivermectin was about 2%. He said of the
calls that were about ivermectin, 70% were by people who had
ingested the veterinary version of the medicine.
Case 3:22-cv-00184 Document 12-21 Filed on 08/08/22 in TXSD Page 8 of 12
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Iii nytimes.com
While certain versions of ivermectin are prescribed to treat head
lice and other parasites in people, other formulations - which
come in forms such as liquid and paste - are commonly used in
the equine and livestock industries to combat worms and parasites.
In past years, Dr. Smolinske said, many of the incidents in New
Mexico involved children mistakenly taking chewable tablets
intended for dogs, but recently the poison centers had seen more
instances of people taking concentrated forms of the drug intended
for large animals.
"Most of our cases are of the horse or dewormer or pour-on
product, so they're highly concentrated compared to those tablets
for dogs," said Dr. Susan Smolinske, the director of the New Mexico
Poison and Drug Information Center.
Dr. Smolinske said misuse of the drug can cause drowsiness,
dizziness, tremors or even a coma. "It gets into the brain, and if you
take a high enough dose, it has difficulty getting out of the brain;'
she said.
Correction: Sept. 26, 2021
An earlier version of this article misstated the percentage of recent calls
to the Mississippi poison control center related to ivermectin. It was 2
percent, not 70 percent.
Case 3:22-cv-00184 Document 12-21 Filed on 08/08/22 in TXSD Page 9 of 12
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Case 3:22-cv-00184 Document 12-21 Filed on 08/08/22 in TXSD Page 12 of 12File and source
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- 1,482,274 bytes
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- Original
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