Apparently Ben Carson and Mike Lindell have been putting a bug in 45*'s ear about pimping an extract of oleander as a therapeutic for COVID-19. (oleandrin)
Jonathan Swan, AXIOS:
To the alarm of some government health officials, President Trump has expressed enthusiasm for the Food and Drug Administration to permit an extract from the oleander plant to be marketed as a dietary supplement or, alternatively, approved as a drug to cure COVID-19, despite lack of proof that it works.
Driving the news: The experimental botanical extract, oleandrin, was promoted to Trump during an Oval Office meeting in July. It's embraced by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell, a big Trump backer, who recently took a financial stake in the company that develops the product.
- Lindell told Axios that in the meeting, Trump "basically said: …'The FDA should be approving it.'"
- The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
The big picture: It's part of a pattern in which entrepreneurs, often without rigorous vetting, push unproven products to Trump — knowing their sales pitches might catch his eye. Trump will then urge FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn to "look at" or speed up approval.
- In March, Trump personally lobbied Hahn to authorize hydroxychloroquine's emergency use to treat COVID-19.
- The FDA obliged. But in June, after a large trial, the agency revoked that authorization and warned of the "risk of heart rhythm problems" in COVID-19 patients treated with the drug.
When government becomes nothing more than a way to pipeline your buddies' get-rich-quick ideas to the top on the information mountain, we've got big fuckin' problems.
And what the fuck is it about Republicans that makes it seem like they're particularly susceptible to this shit?
Anybody remember that Bob McDonnell (an ex-Gov of Virginia) went to fucking prison because of this kinda shit?
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