Arkansas Jail Using Horse Dewormer On Inmates With COVID-19 Despite FDA Warnings, Rise In Ivermectin Poisoning

COVID-19 positive prisoners at the Washington County Jail are being treated with ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug commonly used in livestock, the Washington County Finance and Budget Committee bared on Wednesday.

According to Washington County Justice of the Peace Eva Madison, a county employee was sent to Dr. Robert Karas from Karas Health Care for testing. The staff had tested negative but was given a prescription of ivermectin for prevention, KNWA reported.

The county employee would later ask for a second opinion from their primary physician, who advised them to throw the prescription away after Karas prescribed 50 tablets of ivermectin, with a recommended intake of 10 tablets a day on an empty stomach.

Live + Well Pharmacy, where the prescription was sent, has since confirmed that Karas has been filling out prescriptions of ivermectin for both inmates and other patients, according to the Daily Beast .

Madison also expressed her concerns that more than 600 inmates of the Washington County Detention Center don’t have the same ability to get a second opinion.

“The employee had the good fortune of having a primary care physician to ask for a second opinion [but] our inmates do not have the choice,” Madison said, calling on the prison facility to re-evaluate their partnership with the healthcare provider.

However, Sheriff Tim Helder contended that Karas Health has been a trustworthy partner for them during the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that only one inmate of over 500 positives has been admitted to the hospital under the care of Dr. Karas.

“They are the ones who have been in the trenches in the middle of this COVID issue that we’re dealing with,” Helder said. “Whatever a doctor prescribes, that is not in my bailiwick. I haven’t been to medical school.”

According to a Facebook post by Karas Health Care on July 16, the facility has been prescribing doxy, singular, ivermectin, vitamin D, vitamin C, and zinc to patients who have been testing positive for COVID-19 as they do whatever they can to avoid hospitalizations.

However, the Federal Food and Drug Administration has recently doubled down on warning against using ivermectin to treat COVID-19 following a rise in ivermectin poisoning, noting it is not an antiviral.

“FDA has not approved ivermectin for use in treating or preventing COVID-19 in humans," the post read. "Ivermectin tablets are approved at very specific doses for some parasitic worms, and there are topical (on the skin) formulations for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea."

The drug has been widely advocated by conservatives and the far-right, deeming it the latter-day pandemic miracle drug as they voice opposition against the COVID-19 vaccines.

There have even been reports from several states of people ingesting highly concentrated forms of ivermectin, which can be "highly toxic" to humans, CBS News noted.

The drug, which is commonly used to prevent heartworms and other parasites in animals such as horses and cows, is being widely used to treat COVID-19 in Latin America due to the shortage of available vaccines and proven treatment to cater to their population.