Arkansas Inmates Accuse Doc of Covertly Prescribing Ivermectin for COVID

Four detainees who tested positive for COVID-19 at an Arkansas jail alleged that they were unknowingly treated with the anti-parasitic medication ivermectin, according to a federal lawsuit filed against the Washington County Detention Center and its resident physician, Robert Karas, MD.

According to the complaint — submitted with the help of the Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of inmates Dayman Blackburn, Julio Gonzales, Jeremiah Little, and Edrick Floreal-Wooten — after testing positive for COVID in August 2021, infected inmates were relocated to a barrack designated as the “quarantine block.” There, the detainees alleged that they were given a twice-daily “cocktail of drugs” by Karas and his staff.

Unbeknownst to Karas’s patients, the drug cocktail consisted of high doses of ivermectin and vitamins, according to the inmates’ medical records referenced in the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. The detainees say that they were told that the drugs were a mix of vitamins, steroids, and antibiotics; ivermectin wasn’t mentioned.

The FDA has advised against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID. The CDC and the NIH have also warned against the unauthorized use of ivermectin for COVID, stressing that there are still insufficient data to recommend it as a valid treatment.

Had the inmates been aware that they were taking ivermectin and been informed of its potential side effects, they would have refused to take the drug, they claimed in the complaint.

“No one — including incarcerated individuals — should be deceived and subject to medical experimentation,” said Gary Sullivan, legal director of the Arkansas chapter of the ACLU, in a statement. “The [FDA] has said that misuse of ivermectin for COVID-19 can cause serious harm including seizures, comas, and even death. The detention center failed to use safe and appropriate treatments for COVID-19, even in the midst of a pandemic, and they must be held accountable.”

According to the ACLU’s lawsuit, one plaintiff, who was just over 6 feet tall and 191 pounds at the time, was given 36 mg of ivermectin on the first day of his treatment, followed by a 24-mg dose per day for the next 3 days — coming to a total of 108 mg. Unsurprisingly, this amount of ivermectin is more than 6 times the recommended dose for deworming purposes, and previous studies on its use in COVID have rarely surpassed 14 mg per day.

Since taking these high-dose regimens, the detainees alleged that they have begun to suffer from vision issues, diarrhea, bloody stools, and/or stomach cramping — issues that have prompted them to seek out further medical care for which they were charged fees.

On the Karas Health Care Facebook page, Karas has frequently provided updates about prescribing ivermectin and his work at the Washington County Detention Center. He has also written in-depth about his correspondences with members of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, including one of its co-founders, Paul Marik, MD, who has been embroiled in a legal battle over the use of ivermectin for months.

Since August, the Arkansas Medical Board has been investigating complaints against Karas over his prescribing ivermectin to inmates at the jail. According to a letter sent by his attorney, Karas told an investigator that 254 detainees had been treated with the drug, the Associated Press reported. The board is expected to discuss the progress of the investigation at an upcoming meeting in February.