Doctors, epidemiologists and others reacted with alarm after US President Donald Trump stunned and horrified the world as he went of script on Thursday and suggested that injecting disinfectant and exposure to ultraviolet rays could help people with the deadly coronavirus.
It was not long before White House officials
began texting one another to ask where he got that idea because they
thought, as one adviser put it, “this was going to be bad.”
None
of them seemed to know, as Trump did not consult with any task force
members or administration officials before making his impromptu
statement, which has now been universally rejected by health experts, the officials said.
Instead,
it appears Trump conflated and misinterpreted scientific information
discussed with him in the Oval Office before Thursday’s daily briefing,
according to the officials.
During the meeting some advisers — including
the acting undersecretary for science and technology, Bill Bryan —
shared with the president some new but promising information about
testing that’s been done on coronavirus, officials said. It included a
discussion about how the virus is killed on surfaces with disinfectants
and on hands with soap or sanitizer and studies about the effectiveness
of light, temperature and humidity, as well as a mention of treatments
for various conditions such as radiation, officials said.
The
plan was to stress during the daily White House coronavirus briefing
that disinfectants should be used on surfaces, but then “the president
took it a couple steps further,” one administration official said. He wants to always be giving
people hope and optimism. He certainly isn’t telling anyone to drink
bleach or ingest disinfectant,” the official said.
On Friday Trump told reporters he was being sarcastic when he suggested people inject disinfectant into their bodies.
It’s
not the first time the president has claimed that his attempted “jokes”
were being misinterpreted after facing intense backlash and widespread
criticism. When he referred to himself to reporters as “the chosen one”
during an exchange on trade talks with China last year, he argued later
that he had just been “kidding” and “having fun.” During the 2016
campaign, after repeatedly saying that then-President Barack Obama was
the “founder of ISIS,” he backtracked by saying he was simply being
“sarcastic.” A man in Arizona died in late March after taking chloroquine
phosphate - a substance used to clean fish tanks - after Trump
repeatedly talked about hydroxychloroquine. The man's wife told TV
network NBC News he had been watching the president's daily briefings.
Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested that warmer weather will kill
COVID-19 and allow the country to resume its normal behavior. At a White
House press briefing, he theorized dangerously about the power of
sunlight, ultraviolet light, and disinfectant injections to rid the body
of the novel coronavirus. The very fact that the president actually asked somebody about what
sounded like injecting disinfectants or isopropyl alcohol into the human
body was kind of jaw-dropping.Mr Trump's comments have since been heavily criticised by doctors and have unleashed a torrent of ridicule online, with one comedian on social media app TikTok miming the action of injecting bleach into her veins like a drug.
On Twitter, journalists shared a video of Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House task force on the coronavirus, who appeared to look down, hunch her shoulders, and blink rapidly as Trump told the briefing that disinfectant “does a tremendous number on the lungs.”
April 23, marked an important moment in the history books, as it was the day that Donald Trump went from dangerous circus clown to actual imminent threat to all Americans.
There were early signs that at least some Americans were preparing to act on Trump’s comments, according to the Washington Post, Maryland's COVID-19 hotline has received 100 calls re: ingesting disinfectants.) Which led to, on Friday, what we believe is the first known instance of a manufacturer of a product (Lysol and Dettol maker Reckitt Benckiser ) that carries a poison label on the side of the bottle having to put out a statement effectively saying, “Please don’t listen to the president of the United States when he tells you to drink this.”"Under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),""Our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information," the company said in a statement.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the danger that Trump poses is twofold. First, his mishandling of the crisis has already cost countless lives. His paranoid, narcissistic and psychopathic characteristics are certain to mean that many more lives will be lost due to his handling of the crisis than would be the case if a president of sound character and mental health were in office. The fact remains it's exceptionally dangerous to listen to any word that comes out of the mouth of this very irresponsible president.
As well as being a racist, sexist , homophobic, authoritarian bully it's come a a bit of a surprise that it's taken his lunatic notion of injecting disinfectant for everyone to acknowledge the truth that has been staring us in the face all along – Donald Trump is clearly mentally disordered and poses a grave danger to us all. His madness is catching, too. From the trauma people have experienced under the Trump administration to the cult-like characteristics of his followers, he has created unprecedented mental health consequences across his nation and beyond.
People worried about coronavirus should seek help from a qualified doctor or a qualified pharmacist and not take unfounded advice from an idiot whose daily briefings are actively endangering the public's health. Please don't inject disinfectant or ingest any of Trump's deluded bullshit, in the meantime stay tuned for next week when he wonders aloud if there would be any merit to freebasing rat poison when it comes to killing the virus, nothing really surprises me anymore. .
