Multiple Arkansas inmates reported that, unbeknownst to them, they were given Ivermectin to treat COVID-19. The jail physician who prescribed the drugs is now under investigation by the state medical board.

Several inmates from the Washington County jail said they were told the pills they were given to treat COVID-19 were antibiotics, steroids, and vitamins.

"We were running fevers, throwing up, diarrhea ... and so we figured that they were here to help us," Edrick Floreal-Wooten, an inmate at the jail, told CBS News. "We never knew that they were running experiments on us, giving us ivermectin. We never knew that."

They found out it was actually Ivermectin five days later when news reports broke last month that Dr. Rob Karas was prescribing the anti-parasitic to inmates. At that point, the jail nurses started asking the inmates whether they consented to take the pills when offered. Several did not, Floreal-Wooten told CBS.

"They used us as an experiment, like we're livestock," Floreal-Wooten, 29, said. "Just because we wear stripes, and we make a few mistakes in life, doesn't make us less of a human. We got families, we got loved ones out there that love us."

Karas, who is under investigation by the Arkansas state medical board, said the inmates took the drugs willingly, which the detainees have disputed, CBS reported. A spokesperson from the jail did not immediately return Insider's request for comment.