When the suit was filed, Gray told the Epoch Times, "Congress recognized the importance of letting doctors be doctors and expressly prohibited the FDA from interfering with the practice of medicine." He continued, "That is exactly what the FDA has done repeatedly throughout this pandemic, assuming authority it doesn’t have and trying to insert itself in the medical decisions of Americans everywhere."
In a hearing on November 1, the FDA’s lawyers argued, "The cited statements were not directives. They were not mandatory. They were recommendations. They said what parties should do. They said, for example, why you should not take ivermectin to treat COVID-19. They did not say you may not do it, you must not do it. They did not say it’s prohibited or it’s unlawful. They also did not say that doctors may not prescribe ivermectin."
That’s some pretty innovative hair-splitting. It is almost as if the FDA doesn’t know that in a medical system full of attorneys, statements like this would not chill the use of a drug: