LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – Five former inmates at an Arkansas county jail have settled their lawsuit against a doctor who they say gave them the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin to fight COVID-19 without their consent .
A federal judge last week dismissed the 2022 lawsuit against Dr. Robert Karas, who was a Washington County jail doctor and administered the drug to treat COVID, citing the settlement.
The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of ivermectin by humans and animals to treat certain parasitic worms, lice, and skin conditions. The FDA has not approved its use to treat or prevent COVID-19 in humans. According to the FDA, side effects of the drug include rash, nausea and vomiting.
The detainees said they were never told that ivermectin was among the medications they were given to treat their COVID-19 infections, but were instead told that they were being given vitamins, antibiotics or steroids. The inmates said in their lawsuit that they suffered side effects from taking the drug, including vision problems, diarrhea and stomach cramps, according to the lawsuit.
“These men are incredibly courageous and resilient in resisting the abusive and inhumane experiments they endured at the Washington County Detention Center,” said Holly Dickson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, who represented the detainees. “The experimental use of ivermectin without the knowledge and consent of these patients constituted a serious violation of medical ethics and patients’ rights and these courageous clients prevented further violations not only of their own rights, but also those of other detainees at WCDC.”
Under the terms of the settlement, each of the former inmates will receive $2,000. Two of the inmates are no longer in custody and the other three are now in state custody, Dickson said. The jail has also improved its notification and consent procedures and forms since the lawsuit was filed, the ACLU said.
Michael Mosley, the attorney for the defendants in the case, said they admitted no wrongdoing in settling the case.
“From our perspective, we simply settled because the settlement (as you can see) is very minimal and less than the anticipated cost of continuing the litigation,” Mosley said in an email to The Associated Press. “Furthermore, allegations by some that Dr. Karas conducted experiments regarding ivermectin were and still are false and have been refuted in this case.”
Last year, the state medical board voted to take no action against Karas after receiving complaints about his use of ivermectin to treat COVID among inmates. Karas said he began giving ivermectin at the prison in November 2020. He told a State Medical Board investigator that 254 inmates at the prison had been treated with ivermectin.
Karas defended the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 and said no inmate was forced to take it.
U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks in March denied the inmates’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit, finding they had a “plausible” claim that their constitutional rights had been violated.
The American Medical Association, American Pharmacists Association, and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists called in 2021 for an immediate halt to the prescription and use of this drug to treat COVID-19.
Pharmaceutical prescriptions for ivermectin have skyrocketed during the pandemic, and health officials in Arkansas and other states have issued warnings after seeing an increase in calls to poison control centers about people taking the animal form of the medicine to treat COVID-19. The CDC also sent an alert to doctors about this trend.
Despite the warnings, the drug had been touted by Republican lawmakers in Arkansas and other states as a potential treatment for COVID-19.
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