“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” That may not read like expert advice, but those sentences were what the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tweeted in 2021 in an effort to combat misinformation surrounding the use of the drug ivermectin, an antiparasitic agent, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The FDA subsequently took down this and other social media posts after it was sued by a group of doctors who claimed they were harmed by the agency’s campaign to clarify the drug’s use, saying that it interfered with their ability to prescribe and damaged their reputations.
The episode is one illustration of just how slippery the terrain of “professional speech” has become in the social media age. That was the subject of this year’s Constitution Day lecture, delivered by Claudia E. Haupt, a Northeastern University professor of law and political science and a First Amendment expert. Her talk looked at the intersection of free speech, the First Amendment and public health, an area of law humming with activity.
