According to reports, many prisoners in Arkansas have complained that Ivermectin was supplied to treat COVID-19 unknowingly to them.
The jail doctor who prescribed medicine is now being investigated by the medical board of the state.
Several prisoners at Washington County jail reported that antibiotics, steroids, and vitamins were used with medications for COVID-19 treatment.
“We were running fevers, throwing up, diarrhea … and so we figured that they were here to help us,” Edrick Floreal-Wooten, an inmate at the jail, told CBS News. “We never knew that they were running experiments on us, giving us ivermectin. We never knew that.”
Five days later, they determined that Dr. Rob Karas prescribed anti-parasitic to prisoners when the story surfaced last month.
At that point, the prison nurses began to ask the detainees if they had allowed the drugs to be taken when supplied.
According to CBS, Floreal-Wooten said several didn’t.
“They used us as an experiment like we’re livestock,” Floreal-Wooten, 29, said. “Just because we wear stripes, and we make a few mistakes in life, doesn’t make us less of a human. We got families; we got loved ones out there that love us.”
According to CBS, Karas, who is under investigation by the Arkansas state medical board, said that the prisoners took the medicines willingly, which the inmates deny.
The FDA has reported multiple hospitalizations for patients who have self-medicated with the medicine.
“The FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19 in people or animals. Ivermectin has not been shown to be safe or effective for these indications,” the agency warned. “There’s a lot of misinformation around, and you may have heard that it’s okay to take large doses of ivermectin. It is not okay.”
Karas could not be reached for comment, but he did supply KNWA with a written statement last month.
He cited “in-vitro and controlled studies as well as a significant amount of anecdotal evidence” indicating that Ivermectin is a COVID-19 treatment.
“In late 2020, we began what I consider compassionate use of Ivermectin as part of a comprehensive plan of care for both clinic and jail patients who had become significantly sick from COVID,” Karas wrote. “In my medical judgment, weighing the known risks and side effect profile of Ivermectin against the potential benefits supports the administration of Ivermectin (which we obtained from a licensed pharmacist in dosages and compounds formulated for humans) to COVID-19 patients.”
