Trump Seems To Think ‘Injection’ Of Disinfectant Might Help Against Coronavirus. Don’t Do This.
During the White House press briefing on coronavirus Friday evening, President Donald Trump made mention of a number of experimental ideas doctors were thinking of trying in order to combat the disease.
He also threw his own idea into the mix: using light inside the body to heat the virus up, supposedly, or also, injecting patients with disinfectant.
If you are reading this now, and are thinking about trying that idea out, do not do this — many disinfectants are toxic to humans, especially internally. Getting some cleaners on your skin is harmful and can cause burns, in some cases. Getting disinfectant inside your body can cause significant organ damage. In some cases, doing so can even cause death.
Social media is rife with posts about how bleach can cure the disease, and it’s causing people to harm themselves. To reiterate: bleach and other cleaners cannot cure you of, or prevent you from getting, coronavirus.
With that said, listen to what Trump had to say on Friday regarding disinfectants:
The President inquires about injecting disinfectant? pic.twitter.com/75kGQkD0h7
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 23, 2020
Trump explained during the presser:
“I see that disinfectant knocks it out in a minute…is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside, or, almost a cleaning?”
He added that he wanted to learn more about possibly doing so.
“It’d be interesting to check that,” Trump said. “You’re going to have to use medical doctors, but it sounds interesting to me, so we’ll see.”
Trump has called himself a “stable genius” in the past, but even people who aren’t geniuses know better than to put disinfectant into their own bodies.
Social media reacted quickly to Trump’s gaffe, if you can call it that.
Trump just wondered aloud from the podium about the potential benefits of injecting disinfectant into the body to kill coronavirus.
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) April 23, 2020
Oh no. After showing a study that claims solar light and high temperature kills coronavirus, Trump is advocating shining light on (& inside?) the body to treat COVID-19 & injecting disinfectant into people…
Trump didn't learn his lesson after pushing hydroxychloroquine…
— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) April 23, 2020
Trump asked if doctors could inject disinfectant into the human body to kill the Covid-19 virus?
Did I miss that? Holy hell.
— Alicia Carlson (@AmicaAli) April 23, 2020
President Trump now suggesting maybe some kind of disinfectant could be injected to fight coronavirus. "Almost a cleaning" he says. Dr Fauci not there to inject science
— Chris Jansing (@ChrisJansing) April 23, 2020
Once again,Trump is proposing possible cures: Light, heat, disinfectant. "I'm not a doctor, but I do have a good"–pointing to his own head–"you know what."
What a danger to public health.
— Steven Beschloss (@StevenBeschloss) April 23, 2020
https://twitter.com/JRehling/status/1253459793710211072?s=20
But Walter Shaub, the former director of the United States Office of Government Ethics, perhaps had the best response of all to Trump’s suggestion.
“It is incomprehensible to me that a moron like this holds the highest office in the land and that there exist people stupid enough to think this is ok,” Shaub wrote in a tweet. “I can’t believe that in 2020 I have to caution anyone listening to the president that injecting disinfectant could kill you.”
Trump has been criticized in the recent past for promoting the drug hydroxychloroquine as a possible remedy for coronavirus, even though the anti-malarial medication has not been proven to work to do so. Indeed, recent studies suggest it’s more deadly to use than not using it at all in order to treat COVID-19.
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