Mike Lindell, known as the My Pillow Guy and Ben Carson, the brain surgeon who runs the Department of Housing and Urban Development (this is straight journalism in the year 2020, deal with it) know that Donald Trump needs a miracle to get reelected, so they’ve decided to devote their collective brain power to finding a cure for the coronavirus. To that end, Lindell bought stock in a company owned by Andrew Whitney of Phoenix Biotechnology, who is pushing oleandrin, a flower oil, as a COVID-19 cure. Axios:
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MyPillow CEO Lindell, who is a major advertiser on Fox News and a personal friend of Carson and Trump, helped Whitney get an Oval Office meeting with the president in July to discuss oleandrin as a potential COVID-19 cure. (The Washington Post first reported this meeting.)
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Lindell said that he, Carson, at least one lawyer and, briefly, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, joined Trump and Whitney for the meeting. Notably absent was Hahn, the head of the agency that studies and approves medical treatments.
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Asked why the HUD secretary was promoting an unproven botanical extract to cure COVID-19, a Carson spokesperson emailed the following statement to Axios: “Secretary Carson is a member of the Coronavirus Task Force, he has been directly involved with the Administration’s response to this disease from the very beginning.”
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“The Task Force is looking at a plethora of therapeutics to fight COVID-19,” the statement also said. “To suggest that Secretary Carson, who is a world-renowned expert in the medical field, shouldn’t be involved is not only absurd but unhelpful in our collective fight to eradicate the pandemic.”
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A senior official familiar with Carson’s involvement noted that while Carson is a world-renowned expert in pediatric neurosurgery, he is not a world-renowned expert on antiviral drugs or infectious diseases.
The Task Force may be looking at a “plethora of therapeutics” but so far they have a paucity of anything that works. In fact, they have a dearth, make that a fucking dearth, of anything that comes close to being a cure for COVID-19. But that’s not stopping any of them and it certainly is no caution to Donald Trump, who doesn’t care if it’s Tide pods, or UV lights, or now flower oil, if it will only get him off the hot seat and rising in the polls. (How about salsa taquera to cure COVID, do I have any takers? And we can dry Hatch chiles and seeds and make beads and rattles and do incantations to drive out the coronavirus. Who wants to come with me and join the Trump Task Force in the morning?)
And actually, if you stop to think about, the My Pillow Guy and Ben Carson aren’t any worse than Jared Kushner’s supermodel sister-in-law’s father, right? Remember him, the ER doctor with the group of rando M.D.s on Facebook? They were going to get this thing licked, too?
And this will make you feel better.
 Why it matters: A senior administration official familiar with the internal conversations told Axios, “The involvement of the Secretary of HUD and MyPillow.com in pushing a dubious product at the highest levels should give Americans no comfort at night about their health and safety during a raging pandemic.”
Just another day in Trump world. 78 days to go and then 78 after that until the inauguration. Hang on tight to your dreams. We’re going to wake up from this nightmare, together.
Amazing! really it’s just amazing – stories of snake oil cures from the traveling crooks. Like I tell at least 1 person a day – ‘ we f^&*ing put people on the Moon!’
What happened?
Isn’t this something? What happened to America? How did we elect this level of moron? Not just Trump, look at what’s in the GOP as a whole. He didn’t get where he is alone.
People who decided that education should concentrate on relevant studies: reading, writing, and arithmetic, and noting else is important. Most of them were conservative…and they got what they wanted: a country of people who can’t read or comprehend anything that isn’t on TV, FB, or talk radio.
When you have a country founded on untold human suffering, i.e., the genocide of native americans, the immoral confiscation of land conquered through violence & lies, the enslavement of 4million people & subsequent oppression, the complete acceptance of the hypocrisy of all major faiths in ignoring the universal golden rule while using faith to justify injustice, & the push to pretend there are no true facts, all point to a reckoning. Add in I started 1st grade reciting the pledge of allegiance every morning. “One nation, under God, with liberty & justice for all.” RIGHT. NOT.
Oleandrin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleandrin
It’s toxic.
Well, you know, that would be a way to go to cure coronavirus. Just give everybody a vaccine that will kill them if COVID-19 doesn’t. One way to look at it.
You mean toxic, like ingesting bleach?
https://www.healthline.com/health/drinking-bleach
Toxic like the whole maladministration.
Oleandrin is poisonous. look it up before your eat it.
Most people in California know about it – we’re taught from childhood that oleander is poisonous. It’s still pretty, though. (It’s pretty common in landscaping, because it’s tough.)
Also, it’s not poisonous to touch, as at least one guy is claiming. You have to ingest it.
Or inhale it. The smoke is toxic.
And all the poison control people saying, “oh sh!t, here we go again!”
Well, at least it’s not actual snake oil. If they DID want to sell actual snake oil, I’d be happy to organize an effort to get people in Asia, from Okinawa all the way down to Vietnam, Cambodia & Thailand to send crates of “habus”, once (probably still) called “Three Step Charlies” because after being bitten you had time to walk about three steps before you fell over and went into convulsions that would lead to a fairly quick (although not quick enough for the person bitten!) death. Naw. The assholes at the top wouldn’t be anywhere near the actual collecting of oil from a snake. Just touching one, much less wringing it would fall to desperate people trying to make their minimum wage.
Actual snake oil (not venom) is the nutritional equivalent of fish oil. For the same reason: cold blooded creatures have to have highly unsaturated body fats or they would be too stiff to move in cool temperatures. Good for you, but hardly a panacea.
Why was my comment on snake oil removed?
Yeah, I think I’ll wait on an actual vaccine, Carson. Eff you very much for gambling with people’s health yet again for a buck.
Oleandrin is a cardiac glycoside, similar in action to digoxin. LD50 is .248mg per kg of body weight (tested in cats, BOO!)
Has been used in TCM for cardiac insufficiency, has never been approved by any regulatory agency.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oleandrin
PubMed says it has been studied against cancer also, and it seems to be sold by a number of chemical supply houses under several names.
https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/oleandrin#section=Therapeutic-Uses
Studies. It is being tested for multiple things.
The “moderation” on comments is really borked. Straightforward information and reliable links await moderation? WTF?
Hey, I just watched him and Anderson Cooper go at it. He was bragging about test trials and Anderson was pressing him on any name of anybody that could backup his claims. No name. No backup.