Lawsuits Demand Unproven Ivermectin for COVID Patients – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
Mask rules, vaccination regulations and plant closures have landed in court during the COVID-19 outbreak, confronting judges with questions from science and government agencies. Now more and more people are being asked to weigh up the worming drug ivermectin.
At least two dozen lawsuits have been filed in the U.S., many in the past few weeks, by people trying to force hospitals to give their COVID-affected loved ones ivermectin, a parasite drug that has been promoted as a treatment by conservative commentators despite a lack conclusive evidence that it helps people with the virus.
Interest in the drug began to surge towards the end of last year and early this year when studies – some later withdrawn in other countries – suggested that ivermectin had some potential and it became a hot topic of conversation among conservatives on social media .
The lawsuits, several of which were filed by the same western New York lawyer, cover a similar background. Families have been given prescriptions for ivermectin, but hospitals have refused to use it on loved ones, who are often ventilated and threatened with death.
The results of the state courts varied. Some judges have refused to order hospitals to give ivermectin. Others have instructed doctors to administer the drugs despite fear that they could be harmful.
In a September case in Staten Island, state Supreme Court Justice Ralph Porzio refused to order the use of ivermectin when a man sued a hospital on behalf of his ailing father, citing its unproven effects.
“This court will not require that a physician be placed in a potentially unethical position in which he could commit medical malpractice by administering a drug for an unapproved, allegedly off-label purpose,” he wrote.
It’s amazing, said James Beck, a Philadelphia attorney who specializes in drug and medical device product liability who has written about the influx of cases. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
In some cases, an initial prescription to administer the drug was later reversed.
Hospitals have backed out, saying that their standards of care do not allow them to give patients a drug that is not approved for COVID and could potentially cause harm, and that allowing laypeople and judges to administer healthcare professionals is a dangerous way outvote down.
“The way medicine works is that they’re the experts, the doctors, and … the hospitals,” said Arthur Caplan, professor of bioethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, a restaurant. You don’t order your own treatments. “
“You can’t have a medical field forced to practice on patient demands backed by court orders. It’s absolutely terrible medicine, “said Caplan.
Ralph Lorigo doesn’t see it that way. The Buffalo, New York attorney filed his first of several ivermectin lawsuits in January after being approached by the family of an 80-year-old woman who was hospitalized on a ventilator. His second case later that month was from a 65-year-old woman who was hospitalized.
In both cases, the judges ordered the hospitals to give ivermectin to the women as their families wanted. Both women survived their hospital stays.
Lorigo, who has since taken on numerous cases, insists that ivermectin works. Health experts and federal agencies say any evidence that it is effective against COVID-19 is thin and needs more research. Studies are currently underway.
Ivermectin is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of infections with roundworms, lice, and other tiny parasites in humans. Trying to refute claims that animal-strength versions of the drug can help fight COVID-19, the FDA warns that ingesting large doses will cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, seizures, delirium, and even death can.
Lorigo said his customers weren’t looking for such doses, just the versions of the drugs made for humans.
Of doctors who refused to treat patients with ivermectin, Lorigo said, “They are not gods because they wear white jackets,” he said. “I have a problem with your demeanor.”
And as far as the hospital administrators are concerned: “It is as if only they rule the area, only they make a decision in their hospital. I do not accept that for us as a constitutional state. “
The legal disputes over the drug have come about as courts have also wrestled with questions such as whether employers or states can order workers to be vaccinated against the virus, which has killed more than 700,000 people in the United States
Beck, the drug liability attorney, said doctors have the authority to prescribe ivermectin for the treatment of COVID, even if it hasn’t been approved by the FDA for the disease if they believe it has therapeutic value – a so-called “off”. Use label ”.
“I’ve never seen a case where the judge was asked to force someone to use it off-label,” he said.
Lorigo said he has had more family inquiries about the drug over the past 10 weeks and now has four lawyers working on these cases, including two he recently hired.
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