As more and more litigation emerges over an off-patent drug with a purported ability to treat COVID-19, judges are increasingly finding themselves in a bind: forced to ponder the merits of unapproved treatment and essentially second-guessing physicians whose patients don’t get what they want.

That’s generated concern among health-care lawyers, some of whom see growing requests for the anti-parasite drug Ivermectin as a Hail Mary attempt to keep loved ones alive.