Texas Medical Board files complaint against Dallas doctor for COVID-19 treatment

A Dallas doctor is under scrutiny from the Texas Medical Board after allegedly treating patients with unproven COVID-19 remedies including hydroxychloroquine without proper consent, and discouraging one from going to the hospital days before he died. Dr. Ivette Lozano, according to a complaint by the board staff, treated two patients last year with medicines including zinc, vitamin B-12 and hydroxychloroquine — the anti-malaria drug praised by former President Donald Trump early in the pandemic. The board, which licenses doctors in Texas, alleged Lozano failed to meet the standard of care and didn’t get proper patient consent for the “complementary or alternative treatment.” Research has found hydroxychloroquine shows no benefit against COVID-19. Lozano, who practices in East Dallas, denied the allegations and she and the board are in mediation, state records show. Lozano and her attorney did not respond to requests for comment.

The formal complaint against Lozano, filed in August, is the board’s first related to questionable treatment in the pandemic, according to a spokesman. It comes as medical boards in other states are pursuing investigations into healthcare providers who allegedly promoted unproven drugs to treat COVID-19, including in Hawaii and Arkansas. Lozano is one of several Texas doctors who has publicly pushed hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 in media appearances and at political rallies. The claims have been amplified by social media and at times boosted by Trump himself. Last year, the Republican retweeted a video of Houston-based Dr. Stella Immanuel touting hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 “cure.” During an interview about the pandemic on a conservative radio show last month, Lozano estimated she has prescribed hydroxychloroquine to about 1,500 people. Federal health officials have cautioned against using it to treat COVID-19, citing the risk of heart problems. After initially authorizing the drug for emergency use early in the pandemic, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revoked the status in June 2020 because it determined the medicine was unlikely to be effective in treating the coronavirus. The Texas Medical Board clarified last year that it has never prohibited using hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. Its off-label use is allowed, so long as physicians provide “full disclosure of treatment options, side effects, and obtain informed consent,” board president Dr. Sherif Zaafran said in an August 2020 statement.