President Trump has insisted that he was not seriously advising Americans to inject disinfectant in order to kill coronavirus, instead claiming that he was being “sarcastic.” On Thursday, the POTUS seemed to suggest that the same disinfectants that are used to kill the COVID-19 virus on surfaces and in the air could potentially be used to do the same inside in the body, pondering whether there was a way that people could “inject” chemicals in order to rid their system of coronavirus.
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His comments understandably caused a major uproar, with medical professionals and disinfectant brands like Lysol immediately coming forward to strongly advise against the dangerous and irresponsible act of ingesting disinfectant in any way. However, during a bill signing for the coronavirus aid package the following day, Trump told one of the reporters that he was being sarcastic when he mentioned injecting disinfectant.
“I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters just like you, just to see what would happen,” he said “I was asking…a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. But it does kill it and it would kill it on the hands, and it would make things much better.” Despite his insistence that his remarks were of a sarcastic nature, Trump’s musings were actually directed at a Homeland Security official, making it seem highly unlikely that he was using sarcasm at all.
“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute,” he said during Thursday’s briefing. “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. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds, it sounds interesting to me.” Trump also speculated about the sun’s ability to have any effect on one’s condition, seeming to believe that strong light and heat could in fact kill the virus. “Not as a treatment,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House pandemic response coordinator, said about the sun. “Certainly fever is a good thing, when you have a fever, it helps your body respond. But I have not seen heat or light…” Trump proceeded to respond, “I think it’s a great thing to look at.”
