People in Texas and Georgia are Again Drinking Bleach to Combat COVID

Donald Trump’s COVID-19 press briefings have provided many strange and viral moments. The strangest of these moments was back in April, when he talked about using household disinfectant as a way to combat the Coronavirus. While Trump said he was joking, some people obviously took his words at face value.

Soon after the comments made by Trump, there were stories of people calling poison control asking about the President’s solution. As the disease has spread throughout the Southern part of the US, consumption of the disinfectant is again becoming an issue. The states of Georgia and Texas have reported a number of bleach ingeting cases during the month of August.

The office of Brian Kemp, Georgia’s Mayor, saw fit to issue a warning to people in the state. The statement read, “Chlorine dioxide products have not been shown to be safe and effective for any use, including treatment of COVID-19. They are not meant to be swallowed by people.”

DALLAS – Following 46 cases of bleach ingestions in the North Texas Poison Center region since the start of August, experts are again warning people that drinking the chemical won’t prevent COVID-19.”

(h/t @DrEricDing⁩) https://t.co/qH9giISBkA

— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) August 25, 2020

In the month of August, Texas saw 46 people ingest a bleach like solution. Christina Holloway, from North Texas Poison Control, said, “We certainly are not used to seeing bleach ingestion, at least that frequently in such a short amount of time, and we do know in general this year compared to last we’re seeing a whole lot more of bleach exposures.”

Holloway continued, “We do know that there’s a lot of misinformation through the media, through the internet, so that can also be a contributing factor where people are misinformed and hear it from a neighbor or a friend and think it sounds like a good idea when it could potentially be dangerous.”