On Friday, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson issued a statement thanking President Trump for saving his life after Carson and his wife contracted the coronavirus, writing: “I became desperately ill. President Trump was following my condition and cleared me for the monoclonal antibody therapy that he had previously received, which I am convinced saved my life.”
Carson, a world-famous neurosurgeon, had tested positive for the coronavirus earlier in November. On Friday, he wrote on Facebook:
Thank you everyone for your support and prayers as Candy and I battled COVID-19. I was extremely sick and initially took Oleander 4X with dramatic improvement. However, I have several co-morbidities and after a brief period when I only experienced minor discomfort, the symptoms accelerated and I became desperately ill. President Trump was following my condition and cleared me for the monoclonal antibody therapy that he had previously received, which I am convinced saved my life.
President Trump, the fabulous White House medical team, and the phenomenal doctors at Walter Reed have been paying very close attention to my health and I do believe I am out of the woods at this point. I am hopeful that we can stop playing politics with medicine and instead combine our efforts and goodwill for the good of all people. While I am blessed to have the best medical care in the world (and I am convinced it saved my life), we must prioritize getting comparable treatments and care to everyone as soon as possible.
There are a number of promising treatments that need to be tested, approved, and distributed (sooner rather than later) so that the economy can be re-opened and we can all return to a semblance of normalcy. Also, people should recognize that there are a number of defined steps that legally have to be taken before vaccines are released to the public and trying to cause alarm by saying dangerous shortcuts were taken only serves to stoke fear. Together we will be victorious. God is still in charge.
“Monoclonal antibodies treatments are also being developed by Eli Lilly and other companies. The drugs mimic antibodies that the immune system naturally produces to fight off viruses and other pathogens,” the Daily Mail noted.
The Daily Mail also stated, “Carson said he took Oleander 4X, but there’s no evidence that the treatment or any other homeopathic medicine works against COVID-19.”
On October 11, on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Chuck Todd said to Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, whose Gates Foundation has committed roughly $350 million to support the global response to COVID-19, “I want to start with those comments from the president about the treatment he received. Because these monoclonal antibodies, he has called this cocktail that he got, this experimental cocktail he got, he has called it a cure. Now, this is something you’ve been talking about too as well, and I think the Foundation has supported research on this. Could this become the leading therapeutic for the coronavirus as we go forward?
Gates responded, “Yeah, the word cure is inappropriate, because it won’t work for everyone. But yes, of all the therapeutics, this is the most promising. And so we’ve been working with the companies doing antibodies. We reserved factory capacity all the way back in the spring, and now we’re partnered with Eli Lilly, who, with Regeneron, has been the fastest to get these antibodies ready. They could reduce the death rate quite a bit. So far we only have dexamethasone, which we funded a U.K. trial that helped with that. And so adding this to the tools would be a great thing.”