Drug Pitched to Trump for Covid-19 Comes From a Deadly Plant
The chief executive of My Pillow, a Trump donor, claims oleandrin is a miracle cure for Covid-19. But no studies have shown that it is safe or effective, and the shrub it's derived from is poisonous.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/health/covid-oleandrin-trump-mypillow.html
The unsubstantiated claims alarmed scientists. No studies have shown that oleandrin is safe or effective as a coronavirus treatment. It's unclear what dose the purported treatment would have, but ingesting even a tiny bit of the toxic shrub the compound comes from could kill you, experts say.
Why Mike Lindell Can't Stop
The MyPillow tycoon has lost business pumping up Trump conspiracy theories, and probably lost his chance at a political future. But he believes he's on a divine mission to overturn the electionand he's not alone.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/06/15/mike-lindell-mypillow-trump-election-conspiracy-494302
One day in mid-May, after a rally in South Dakota to promote his new website, Mike Lindell, the pillow magnate and indefatigable election-conspiracy promoter, barreled into his company headquarters, sat himself down at a long table in a conference room he uses as a makeshift office and slid a dropper under his tongue.
The dropper was full of oleandrin, a plant extract that he toutsalarmingly, to scientistsas both a preventative and "miracle" cure for Covid-19. He squeezed.
"Look at this I can never get the virus," he said, near the beginning of the roughly six hours I spent with him over two days at MyPillow. "It's impossible for me to get it."
“It is impossible to get a man to understand something if his livelihood depends on him not understanding.” ~ Upton Sinclair