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Washington County Quorum Court passes resolution showing appreciation for jail doctor

This comes after the doctor was sued last month by the ACLU on behalf of inmates for giving them an unproven COVID treatment.

WASHINGTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — A Fayetteville doctor who is currently being sued for his use of an unproven COVID-19 treatment on inmates at the Washington County Detention Center is being praised by some members of the Washington County Quorum Court.   

A resolution to express appreciation to Dr. Robert Karas and Karas Correctional Health was passed at Thursday, Feb. 17, night’s Washington County Quorum Court meeting with 9 members voting in favor, 1 not voting and 4 voting no. Justice of the Peace for District 5, Patrick Deakins brought forth the resolution. 

“Out of 850 cases in the detention center, zero fatalities. I don’t know what more we could have asked for as a county, so I wanted to commend all their efforts through the whole pandemic, really serving our county in an exceptional manner,” he said. 

Justice of the Peace for District 12, Evelyn Rios Stafford voted against the resolution.  

“Washington County is facing a lawsuit over the medical treatment of inmates at the county jail and so because of that I thought it would be prudent for us to wait on any resolution taking a stand on a medical provider,” she said. 

Stafford brought for another resolution that failed, that endorsed that any medical provider that does business with the county should follow the law and best medical practices when it comes to medical treatments. She says it’s disappointing it didn’t pass because of the lawsuit against Dr. Karas. It was filed on behalf of inmates who say they were unknowingly given ivermectin to treat the virus, a drug not approved by the FDA to treat COVID-19.  

“While that’s not up for us to decide, I think what was important for us to decide was to clear the air and make sure the public knows that we support doing things by the book and doing things the right way,” she said. 

But Deakins says the resolution that failed was in search of a problem because of course everyone wants informed consent in a medical situation and that resolution was operating under the assumption that there wasn’t informed consent and that’s detrimental to Dr. Karas and his staff. 

“I want everybody in Washington County to realize, the detention center is a very challenging place to work in normal circumstances. You are going to mix in the pandemic in that and it’s almost impossible, so it’s very critical to keep morale high,” he said. 

5NEWS reached out to Dr. Kasas for comment on the resolution and was told he had no comment at this time. 5NEWS also reached out to the ACLU about the ongoing lawsuit but has not heard back. 

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