Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said in a new interview that he took oleander extract, an unapproved herbal supplement that has been promoted by the CEO of MyPillow, after contracting COVID-19.

The Washington Post reports Carson, a former neurosurgeon, said he took the extract after it was recommended by Mike Lindell. Lindell, who also served as President Trump's Minnesota campaign chairman, has a financial stake in the company that makes the extract, the Post notes.

Carson told the newspaper that his symptoms disappeared within hours after taking the supplement, also called oleandrin.

“Anybody who has ever gotten COVID and taken it, they are fine in five hours, and the next day are running around playing floor hockey in the hallway,” Lindell has said, despite the lack of scientific evidence to suggests oleander extract is useful in treating COVID-19.

https://thehill.com/homenews/news/526670-ben-carson-says-he-used-unproven-covid-19-treatment-recommended-by-mypillow-ceo

President Donald Trump and the first lady will be spending Thanksgiving at the White House instead of attending the annual dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.

The first lady’s spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, confirmed the plans in a “Holiday Scheduling Update” on Twitter on Tuesday evening.

Trump and his family typically spend the holiday in Palm Beach and have Thanksgiving dinner in a ballroom alongside dues-paying members who purchase tickets to attend.

A spokesperson for the Trump Organization did not respond to questions Tuesday about whether the Mar-a-Lago event would be held given the spike in coronavirus cases and pleas from public health officials for Americans to limit the number of people they socialize with indoors this holiday season to limit the spread.

https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-peace-process-israel-3b0764979b46377d5344b3e1d322fdd2

More than 130 Secret Service officers who help protect the White House and the president when he travels have recently been ordered to isolate or quarantine because they tested positive for the coronavirus or had close contact with infected co-workers, according to three people familiar with agency staffing.

The spread of the coronavirus — which has sidelined roughly 10 percent of the agency’s core security team — is believed to be partly linked to a series of campaign rallies that President Trump held in the weeks before the Nov. 3 election, according to the people, who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the situation.

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The virus is having a dramatic impact on the Secret Service’s presidential security unit at the same time that growing numbers of prominent Trump campaign allies and White House officials have fallen ill in the wake of campaign events, where many attendees did not wear masks.

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In addition, at least eight staffers at the Republican National Committee, including Chief of Staff Richard Walters, have the virus, according to officials at the organization. Some of those infected are in field offices across the country, including Pennsylvania, where some believe they were exposed in large staff gatherings, an official said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-coronavirus-outbreak/2020/11/13/610eebcc-2539-11eb-8672-c281c7a2c96e_story.html