NORFOLK, Va. - A doctor at Sentara Healthcare leading an effort to make a controversial drug, ivermectin, a standard treatment for COVID-19 patients has been suspended from his duties in the ICU of a local hospital.
News 3 received a copy ofa letter Dr. Paul Marik's attorney, Fred Taylor, sent to a judge Monday stating Marik showed up for work at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital the morning of November 20 to find a letter on his desk "informing him that his hospital privileges had been suspended for fourteen days."
“This is a desperate attempt by Sentara to say that Dr. Marik does not have standing since he was suspended at the time of arguing his case in court,” Taylor told News 3.
Marik, a critical care doctor at Sentara Norfolk and professor of medicine and chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, believes ivermectin helps kill the COVID-19 virus.
However, theU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health say there’s not enough data to prove ivermectin works against the virus.
Marik is suing the healthcare system because they won't allow him to treat COVID-19 patients with ivermectin, along with a host of other drugs that make up his developed MATH+ Protocol.
Last week, Sentara faced off in court with Marik.
News 3 also reached out to Sentara Monday for comment.
“In accordance with Virginia state statutes, and consistent with hospital policies, we cannot comment on any medical staff proceedings,” Sentara stated.
A judge is expected to make a ruling sometime this week.
