Originally Posted: August 20, 2020
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.
An excerpt from the NYT article:
So why would anyone think oleandrin could be a treatment for Covid?
It’s not uncommon for plants — even poisonous ones — to generate interest as treatments for disease. Robert Harrod, a professor at Southern Methodist University, has studied oleandrin’s potential to fight a type of leukemia, for example. Although Dr. Harrod said that using oleandrin to treat the coronavirus was not yet more than “an intriguing idea,” he’s rooting for it to work. READ MORE