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over the counter. One year later, the Fifth Circuit ordered the FDA to retract posts on X, then Twitter, reading, “You’re not a horse. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” Arkansas made ivermectin prescription-free in March. Last month, Idaho’s governor signed a law putting ivermectin on par with ibuprofen. Similar legislation is pending in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma and West Virginia. For Holland and many others, it’s as if the drug was only dangerous during the lockdowns. In 2011, the National Institutes of Health published research that called ivermectin a “wonder drug,” likening it to aspirin and penicillin. Its discoverers won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Joe Rogan, the world’s largest podcaster, was widely criticized for taking the drug to combat a COVID diagnosis in 2021. Mel Gibson’s claims in January that ivermectin could cure stage four cancer, made on Rogan’s show, were branded “dangerous” and “cruel.” Holland had to do his own research. It led him to one of the emerging legal voices in this movement to better understand COVID policy. Lawyer up! Holland told his story to Rachel Rodriguez, an attorney in West Palm Beach, Fla., who has been organizing what she describes as the first coordinated attempt to push for criminal investigations into COVID-era hospital protocols. “This actually started back when the so-called pandemic hit and we were being bombarded on all sides by a death ticker,” said Rodriguez, her voice filled with sarcastic ire. “I’ve never seen anything like that in my lifetime, where we’re being told in real time how many people are dying.” Initially working on employment cases The PREP Act does not shield liability for healthcare providers when they engage in, I believe it’s knowing and willful...harm. Criminal liability is not shielded by the PREP Act.” RACHEL RODRIGUEZ, ATTORNEY
related to vaccine mandates, Rodriguez was soon approached by people whose stories went far beyond workplace grievances. “People were starting to call my office saying, ‘This is our story.’” Many of those stories came from those like Holland: Families who had lost a loved one, looking for a medical professional to blame. “Medical malpractice and wrongful death claims are not my bailiwick. It’s a niche area,” Rodriguez said. Her search for guidance led her to a Florida medical malpractice attorney who nearly died himself while hospitalized with COVID-19. “He knew that he was being killed and miraculously he got out,” Rodriguez recounted, “and it became clear that the civil remedies would not work.” The legal barrier they encountered is known as the PREP Act — Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act — coupled with the CARES Act. As the pandemic began, Health and Human Services issued a PREP declaration March 17, 2020. That act covered drugs like remdesivir, vaccines, ventilators and diagnostics. The CARES Act — Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security — was signed into law that same day. While primarily an economic stimulus package, it further shielded hospitals and medical centers from legal liability during the pandemic. Together, these laws provide sweeping immunity to hospitals and healthcare providers for actions taken under the umbrella of federally approved countermeasures during a public health emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. “The PREP Act virtually decimated any possibility of liability,” Rodriguez said. “If it even touches on a countermeasure that’s been named for the COVID-19 pandemic, then we don’t have any jurisdiction. Get out of court.” James Holland’s truck (above), is a memorial to his late wife, Christina (right), and an admonishment of the Chandler hospital where she died of COVID-19 in December 2021. She was 60.
That’s when Rodriguez and a network of attorneys and families began shifting toward criminal petitions, going after individual hospital administrators. “The PREP Act does not shield liability for healthcare providers when they engage in, I believe it’s knowing and willful...harm,” explained Rodriguez. “Criminal liability is not shielded by the PREP Act.” ‘Hospital homicide’ What began as a legal longshot has now turned into a sprawling campaign. Starting in January, Rodriguez’s team has submitted formal petitions to prosecutors in seven states. In Arizona, the team has established contact with Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller and county attorneys in Maricopa, Pima, Mojave, Yuma, Cochise and Navajo. On March 31, Rodriguez’s legal team formally submitted a 17-page criminal petition to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat. The document urges the state to investigate “hospital homicide” during the pandemic and prosecute both federal officials and Arizona hospital administrators under numerous criminal statutes. The filing names administrators at more than a dozen hospitals across the state, including Chandler Regional Medical Center, Banner Health facilities and HonorHealth systems. It includes 36 Arizona-based victims and cites affidavits, testimony and financial records to argue that federal incentives drove the enforcement of protocols that families say were deadly. “Thirty district attorneys and county attorneys in multiple states have also received our requests to investigate,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve kept it kind of short. It’s a broad overview of the evidence we’ve identified...so that there is something directly within the jurisdiction
Tough pill to swallow She lost her fight with COVID. 4 years later, he’s still fighting the system BY DAVID IVERSEN
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The medical center declined to comment for this story. “I want them to sue me,” said Holland, 65, at a Maricopa taqueria last month. “That’s the only way I’ll get my day in court.” It’s not just grief that drives Holland; it’s a belief that what happened inside that hospital room was avoidable. He believes his wife would still be alive had she received alternative treatments: ivermectin, monoclonal antibodies, vitamin C infusions. These treatments, broadly discredited by the mainstream medical community, have become rallying cries for a growing group of bereaved families, advocates and now, attorneys. Cure for COVID or suppository for Secretariat? When Holland’s wife was dying, ivermectin panic was at an all-time high. Federal health
agencies, eager to stamp out deviation from their guidance, warned that the drug “might kill you.” Today, ivermectin is considered no more dangerous than Advil in some states. Yet, many doctors still agree it’s useless against COVID. (It is effective against a wide range of infections and parasites, but not viruses.) With misinformation being promulgated from both sides, it has long been difficult to parse out the truth. Rolling Stone ’s 2021 claim that “horse paste overdoses” were bogging down an Oklahoma hospital were debunked when the hospital said it had never treated a single person for such an ailment. That was the year the Washington Post ventured to explain “how those ivermectin conspiracy theories convinced people to buy horse dewormer.” But then, something changed. In 2022, Tennessee made ivermectin universally available
ROM THE BACK OF HIS TAN pickup truck, James Holland sends a message in bold vinyl letters when he drives south on John
Wayne Parkway. Holland is mild mannered. His sun-worn hands and face are those of someone who has worked in the fields for most of his life. He speaks matter-of-factly about whatever comes to mind. More matter of fact are the custom vinyl stickers added to the back of his Toyota Tacoma, muddied by the ochry farm roads just south of town that he drives daily. “Covid didn’t kill my wife,” reads the message. “Lack of care killed her.” The message is a direct accusation aimed at Chandler Regional Medical Center, where his wife Christina died of COVID-19 complications after a 27-day hospital stay in December 2021.
InMaricopa.com | May 2025
May 2025 | InMaricopa.com
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