“He was enthusiastic because he’s on everything that will help people,” Lindell told CNN about Trump’s reaction to the extract and its possible use, including as a potential coronavirus therapist. (Important note: Neither Lindell nor Trump are medical doctors or experts on infection.)
That all brings me to Tuesday, when Lindell was interviewed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper. It was, by any objective measure, an absolute and total disaster for Lindell – and oleandrin.
Lindell began the interview by telling how, shortly after asking the whole country to pray for a solution to the coronavirus pandemic, he was contacted – on Easter Sunday! – by the maker of oleandrin. He immediately took the idea to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, who is an actual medical doctor, despite the fact that there have been no peer-reviewed studies on the effectiveness (or not) of the extract. Lindell told Cooper that he felt the 1,000 people who had taken oleandrin in 2016 – long before Covid-19 existed – and that no unusual reactions had enough evidence.
Lindell: Well, the 1,000 people are there. I do not know if you do not find it. But I’m not a medical doctor. I just know that Ben Carson, who’s on the task force, brought it to the President –
Cooper: OK. But stop, sir. Ben Carson has been paid to supplement in the past and got into trouble for it in 2015. That he has a track record on that. You tell people that this Covid is embarrassing. You have no studies to prove it. And you say that 1,000 people were tested –
Lindell: You know what: I have my own study. When I took the name – When I took the test of 1,000 people I saw that it was safe. That’s all I needed.
Cooper: Sir, OK, if you’ve seen this test, where’s this test?
Lindell: I have been taking it since April. I have been taking it since April. I have 100 friends and family – this thing works. It is the miracle of all time.
Cooper: You said – sir, you said you saw this test, where is it?
Lindell: The tests are there. The thousand people – phase one, phase two.
Cooper: Where’s the test? Let us see.
Lindell: I do not have the test.
Whoa boy. And it only got worse.
Lindell claimed that the “FDA has had it since April” and accused Cooper of improperly constructing it “because the media is seeking this great cure that works for everyone.”
(Note: The FDA has not approved oleandrin. The agency generally does not approve dietary supplements, but says it is the company’s responsibility to ensure their products are safe and claims are true. FDA has gone to hundreds of products for it. making false claims about diagnosing, preventing or treating Covid-19.)
Cooper responded to Lindell here:
Sir, only for our viewers, you have no medical background. You are not a scientist. A boy called you in April, said he had this product. You are now on board and will earn money from the sale of this product “… And you make money from it. How do you sleep at night?”
Lindell insisted, noting, “This works and I stand by what I believe. I have no monetary gain here.” (That last part is demonstrably false.)
He suggested that Cooper “probably” slept on a MyPillow. (Cooper did not say that.)
And he insisted that he had “done my due diligence and studies with the Covid and people and not yet published.” (Er, OK.)
These are the people that Trump has elevated to positions of power and influence as the country continues to fight the coronavirus pandemic. People who do what he does – push unproven cures (hydroxychloroquine! Bleach injections!) – without any sense of the harm they do to those who follow them most loudly.
Kudos to Anderson for exposing how thin the ‘science’ is on claims like the ones Lindell really makes. Lindell’s junkie slug is not only humiliating. It could be dangerous.
Veronica Stracqualursi, Betsy Klein and Allison Gordon of CNN contributed to this report.
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