Hindustantimes wants to start sending you push notifications. Click allow to subscribe

Covid-19 update: Donald Trump now touts shots of disinfectant, sunlight; slammed

Hindustan Times, Washington | ByYashwant Raj
Apr 24, 2020 10:40 PM IST

By Friday morning, the US toll had gone up to be 49,963 with 3,332 new fatalities and the number of confirmed cases was 869,172, with 28,819 more.

President Donald Trump on Thursday shockingly sought more more research into injecting disinfectants into the body to kill the deadly coronavirus, or the use of UV rays, as the United States inched closer to the 50,000 mark with more than 3,300 fatalities in the last 24 hours.

By Friday morning, the US toll had gone up to be 49,963 with 3,332 new fatalities and the number of confirmed cases was 869,172, with 28,819 more.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

Trump’s suggestions came at the daily briefing of the US coronavirus task force after a presentation of new research that shows the virus is vulnerable to heat and humidity, direct sunlight kills it the quickest and some readily available disinfectants finish it off in 5 minutes or much less.

“So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous -- whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light -- and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it,” the president asked the presenter, a senior official of the Department of Homeland Security’s science and technology directorate.

“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,” he continued, and added, “So it would be interesting to check that.”

Disinfectants can be poisonous. And physicians and medical experts were aghast at the president’s suggestions. Deborah birx, coordinator of the president’s task force, wanted no part of the president’s suggestions when he turned to her for affirmation.

“Deborah, have you ever heard of that?” the president asked Birx while responding to questions from reporters. “The heat and the light, relative to– certain viruses, yes, but relative to this virus?”

“Not as a treatment,” Birx said. “I mean, certainly fever is a good thing. When you have a fever, it helps your body respond. But not as, I’ve not seen heat …”

Trump cut her off: “I think it’s a great thing to look at.”

President Trump has previously touted the use of the antimalarial hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus without any proof, arguing there is nothing to lose by trying it.

And now this, something that the medical community denounced as dangerous. “My concern is that people will die. People will think this is a good idea,” Craig Spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, told The Washington Post. “This is not willy-nilly, off-the-cuff, maybe-this-will-work advice. This is dangerous”.

Stanford University’s Eugene Chu wrote on twitter: “Clorox, Tide Pods, and Lysol (disinfectants) will kill the coronavirus. No question about it. But if you are infected, then the coronavirus is inside your cells. If you use any of those disinfectants to kill the coronavirus within your own cells, then you’ll die right along with the coronavirus.”

Even the disinfectant makers were troubled by the president suggestions. “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),” a spokesperson for Reckitt Benckiser, the United Kingdom-based owner of Lysol, told NBC News.

As the president continued to be excoriated for the suggestions, the White House said in a statement Friday morning, “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.”

Unlock a world of Benefits with HT! From insightful newsletters to real-time news alerts and a personalized news feed – it's all here, just a click away! - Login Now!

Get Latest World News along with Latest News from India at Hindustan Times.
SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Start 14 Days Free Trial Subscribe Now
OPEN APP