This Thursday at a White House press conference, President Donald Trump suggested looking into the possibility of injecting household disinfectants like bleach to treat the Coronavirus. There is not a shred of apparent evidence suggesting any kind of legitimacy to the notion that injecting bleach or a similar disinfectant would be safe, let alone effective against the Coronavirus. Nevertheless, the president’s team of loyal shills promptly launched into defenses of his behavior following backlash. Who even is the audience for their defenses? They do know that the majority of Americans don’t take them seriously, right?
On Friday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany — who actually used to be a Never Trumper but recently came onboard after the departure of Stephanie Grisham — complained about the media, insisting:
‘President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterday’s briefing. Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines.’
From the manufacturer of Lysol: “As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)” https://t.co/AeXC2QgFLR
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 24, 2020
Admonishing Americans to consult with medical professionals before actually injecting or otherwise consuming bleach or another disinfectant does not change the substance of what he said. He suggested the internal usage of household disinfectants as a possible cure for the Coronavirus — it’s on tape.
Today, I – a citizen of the United States call on congress & the presidents cabinet to apply the #25thAmendment to remove #TrumpMadness from the WH.
If it's not insane to tell people to drink or inject disinfectant to cure #Covid19 – what is?#Fresh
RTpic.twitter.com/n0Pk16UfYe— Southern Sister Resister (@ResisterSis20) April 24, 2020
On Thursday, after an administration official presented findings about the effects of ultraviolet light and disinfectants on the Coronavirus outside the body, Trump commented:
‘So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too. It sounds interesting. Then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning — because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.’
No, Donald, it would not be interesting to see what happens if people sick with the Coronavirus get injected with disinfectants like bleach. We already know what would happen — they’d get even sicker, because disinfectants like bleach are not for internal usage, plain and simple.
Trump has faced a lot of criticism for his reckless peddling of misinformation. His own administration’s former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday:
‘There’s no circumstance under which you should take a disinfectant, or inject a disinfectant for the treatment of anything and certainly not the treatment of Coronavirus. There is absolutely no circumstance in which that is appropriate and it can cause death and very adverse outcomes.’
Perhaps bleach is the new hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug which Trump wound himself up in a frenzy to promote despite only questionable anecdotal evidence that it had any effect on the Coronavirus at all.
