https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ivermeticin-inmates-covid-19-arkansas-fda-warnings/
A detention center in Washington County, Arkansas, has been using the anti-parasite drug ivermectin to treat inmates who have COVID-19, local officials say, even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has specifically warned against it. The FDA says the drug, which is frequently used as a dewormer in animals, is not an approved or recommended treatment for COVID-19, and "can cause serious harm."
Eva Madison, a county elected official, raised the issue during a finance and budget committee meeting Tuesday night. Jail officials were presenting their 2022 budget, which included the jail's physician, Dr. Rob Karas, asking for a 10% increase in the medical services contract.
Madison informed committee members and the jail officials that a county employee, who has opted to stay anonymous to the public, told her that he had been sent to the jail's clinic to get tested for COVID-19. When the person tested negative, they were given a $76 prescription for ivermectin. He was concerned about the prescription and asked his primary care physician about it, and the the physician told him to "throw that in the trash," Madison said.
Madison told CBS News on Wednesday that after learning of the prescription, she contacted the county sheriff, Tim Helder.
"The sheriff defended it, said that Karas has been regularly prescribing ivermectin at the jail during the pandemic," Madison said.
"He's state licensed, board approved," one of the officials said.
CBS News has reached out to the Washington County Sheriff's Office and Karas Health Care for comment.
Madison said that when she spoke to Karas, he confirmed he had been prescribing the medicine to detainees at the jail, and that he and his family members were also taking it. She said he cited the National Institutes of Health, which said in February that laboratory research suggests ivermectin may inhibit viruses in test-tubes. However, the NIH also said no clinical trials have reported a benefit for human patients with those viruses. The NIH says there is "insufficient evidence" to make a recommendation on ivermectin and that it is not approved to treat any viral infection.
While researching this story I had an epiphany: what if journalists just reported the facts and left the moralizing to the reader? What if there was a collective set of ethics that forbade biased reporting? What if people didn't care about a narrative, and just wanted to read the facts?
Anyway, I read every article I could find on this story and I couldn't find the answer to the most obvious question: what kind of results has the physician produced treating COVID patients with ivermectin?
The sheriff defends the doctor's treatment. The "state licensed, board approved" doctor is treating himself and his family with ivermectin. The inmates aren't responsible for the complaint.
I'm not advocating for the use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID, because I'm not a doctor. But, if I were a journalist and was I writing this story, I most certainly would have asked the doctor about the success rate he had treating his patients with ivermectin. Who wouldn't ask that question?
Inquiring minds want to know!
UPDATE:
Sheriff Tim Helder said during the meeting that Karas Health has been an amazing partner for the jail during the pandemic.
“They are the ones who have been in the trenches in the middle of this COVID issue that we’re dealing with,” Sheriff Helder says. “Whatever a doctor prescribes, that is not in my bailiwick I haven’t been to medical school.”
The sheriff said during the meeting that only one person of over 500 positives have been admitted to the hospital.
Karas Health Care made a Facebook post on July 16 that stated in part, “if anybody you know test positive send them our way and we’ll get them started on doxy, singular, ivermectin, vitamin d, vitamin c and zinc and do our best to keep them out of the hospital.
A comment was made on the post and Karas Health Care responded with: “Yes we have been using ivermectin for prevention since January. I restarted for myself last week.”
Interestingly, the national media opted to omit the most relevant part of the story: the success rate of his treatment plan. The "news" that was relevant in their mind was "look, we have a dissenter!" This is how out of touch with reality these people are (and the reason nobody trusts them). The masses just want ethical, unbiased reporting. The reporters just want to enforce a narrative that chastises non-conformists. Why else would censorship exist?
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