More efforts to stop ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine than fentanyl? Here’s why that’s wrong.

As the U.S.’ fentanyl crisis continues, one social media user said the government has done less to stop it than it has to stop the distribution of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, two drugs many Americans sought to use early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Feb. 26 Instagram post said, "Food for thought: Why did the government do more to stop the distribution of ivermectin & hydroxychloroquine than to stop the distribution of Fentanyl?!"

A caption with the post read, "Imagine if the Biden administration actually focused on the things they truly mattered!"

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The Instagram post is wrong about the government’s actions on ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine distribution. Both drugs are Food and Drug Administration-approved for certain uses and are for sale in the U.S. 

Doctors also have the authority to prescribe the drugs off label for uses other than the ones for which they are approved. That typically happens when there are no effective treatment options for a condition, such as in the early days of the pandemic before vaccines and antiviral treatments were widely available.

The FDA in March 2020 first granted emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine sulfate and chloroquine phosphate as COVID-19 treatments during former President Donald Trump’s administration. 

Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malarial drug that is also used to treat diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. It soared in popularity in March 2020, before it received the FDA’s emergency use authority, after Trump touted the drug as a COVID-19 treatment.

The agency rescinded its authorization three months later after data showed hydroxychloroquine wasn’t effective in treating COVID-19 and the drug presented risk of adverse cardiac events.

The FDA has never authorized ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment. In humans, ivermectin is used in tablet form to treat parasites and in topical form to treat lice and some skin conditions. There is also an animal version used to treat heartworm disease and parasites.

After some people grew interested in using the drug as a COVID-19 treatment, the FDA in 2021, under President Joe Biden, warned that studies showed the drug wasn’t effective in treating or preventing COVID-19. The warning came amid reports it received that people were self-medicating with the animal version, which is unsafe for humans.

The FDA, however, said in a court hearing in a lawsuit accusing it of interfering with doctors’ judgment in treating COVID-19 patients that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID-19. In an August 2023 X post about ivermectin, the agency wrote that doctors may prescribe patients approved drugs for unapproved uses when they deem it appropriate.

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The Instagram post is also wrong to suggest that Biden isn’t trying to stop the flow of illicit fentanyl into the U.S., a problem that has plagued the country through multiple administrations.

Data shows fentanyl overdoses remain a major problem, but that does not mean the government hasn’t expended significant money and resources on the issue.

In 2021, 70,601 people died from synthetic opioid overdoses, primarily fentanyl, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows an increase in the amount of fentanyl seized by border authorities since Biden took office. About 27 thousands pounds of fentanyl was seized in fiscal year 2023 and more than 7,000 pounds have been seized so far this fiscal year (October through January). Experts told PolitiFact that a rise in drug seizures could signal that more drugs are flowing into the country.

In his 2023 State of the Union speech, Biden called for a "major surge" to stop fentanyl production and trafficking, with more drug detection machines at the border and stronger penalties for trafficking.

Biden's proposed fiscal year 2024 budget calls for spending $535 million in U.S. Customs and Border Protection for technology, including $305 million for "non-intrusive inspection systems" with a primary focus on detecting fentanyl at ports of entry, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a March 2023 statement.

Here are some other moves the Biden administration has taken in response to the fentanyl crisis:

• In March 2022, at the administration's request, the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted to control three chemicals used to produce illicit fentanyl.

• In July, the White House launched the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats, an effort with more than 80 countries to coordinate approaches to battle the issue.

• In August, Biden announced $450 million in new funding to tackle drug abuse and trafficking.

• In October, Biden issued a $1.2 billion supplemental funding request to Congress to help stop fentanyl’s flow into the country at the southern border by providing funding for more border patrol agents, law enforcement officers and "cutting-edge inspection machines." That money has been tied up in Congress for months after Republicans rejected a bipartisan deal that would have provided border money, along with as money for Israel and Ukraine.

• In November, Biden announced the resumption of bilateral cooperation on counternarcotics with China, a large source of the precursor chemicals Mexican cartels use to produce illicit fentanyl.

• In December, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced a Counter-Fentanyl Strike Force aimed at cracking down on illicit financial networks that support drug cartels and traffickers.

An Instagram post’s claim that the government has done more to stop ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine distribution than to fentanyl’s flow into the U.S. is wrong. Both the legal drugs are available for prescribed and off-label uses, though the FDA warned that neither was effective in treating COVID-19. Meanwhile, Biden has made efforts to slow the flow of fentanyl. We rate the claim False.