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Arkansas Inmates: Jail Doc Prescribed Us Ivermectin Without Consent

The inmates were allegedly told that the ivermectin pills were antibiotics, steroids, and vitamins.

A doctor accused of prescribing incarcerated patients horse deworming drug ivermectin for COVID-19 now faces allegations that he did so without the inmates’ informed medical consent. Dr. Rob Karas, who is already under investigation by Arkansas health authorities, had previously said that the inmates were willingly taking ivermectin, which the FDA maintains is unproven as a treatment for COVID-19 and incredibly dangerous to humans in large doses. Several inmates told CBS News that this was never the case. “It was not consensual. They used us as an experiment, like we’re livestock,” a quarantined inmate, Edrick Floreal-Wooten, told CBS. He said that detainees were initially told the pills were antibiotics, steroids, and vitamins. It was roughly five days later, when The Daily Beast and other outlets broke the news that Karas was using ivermectin to treat COVID-positive inmates, that they realized what was happening. Only then did nurses break out the consent forms, according to Floreal-Wooten; approximately 20 detainees have since turned the drug down. Floreal-Wootin says he has since begun experiencing diarrhea and abdominal pain, side effects associated with taking ivermectin. He hasn’t told medical staff, however, instead preferring to wait six weeks until his scheduled release from jail. “I’m scared,” he told CBS. “I can’t trust any of the medical staff. I can’t trust any of the guards.”