US President, Donald Trump, has come out to deny ever wanting people to ingest disinfectatnts as a Coronavirus cure after facing backlash on Friday for suggesting cleaning products like disinfectants should be ingested and tested as a coronavirus treatment.
On Thursday, during the White House Coronavirus briefing, Trump turned to address members of his coronavirus task force, who had been discussing a government study that showed sunlight and disinfectant kill the virus outside the body.
“I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute,” Mr Trump said
“One minute! And is there a way we can do something by an injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs . . . so it’d be interesting to check that.”
Trump’s comments immediately brought swift criticism and outright rejection by the medical community.
Reckitt Benckiser, the UK maker of household cleaning products like Lysol, issued a statement on Friday saying “under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)”.
The Clorox Company issued a similar statement, warning “bleach and other disinfectants are not suitable for consumption or injection under any circumstances”.
Joe Biden, Trump’s expected challenger in the November 2020 presidential elections, said in a tweet: “UV light? Injecting disinfectant? Here’s an idea, Mr. President: more tests. Now. And protective equipment for actual medical professionals.”
Now Trump has now come out to deny ever saying people should take in disinfectants, saying his comments were all sarcasm.
“I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” Mr Trump said from the Oval Office on Friday. “[Disinfectant] does kill it, and it would kill it on the hands, and it would make it much better.”
