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By Kate Kelland and Raphael Satter 
9h ago
LONDON / WASHINGTON – United States President Donald Trump’s reflections on whether the injection of disinfectants could treat horrified Covid-19 medical professionals on Friday and raised new concerns that his briefings could make people scared become poisoned with unproven treatments.
An international chorus of doctors and health experts urged people not to drink or inject disinfectant after Trump suggested Thursday that scientists should investigate the insertion of the cleaning agent into the body as a way to cure Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.
Trump tried on Friday to portray his comments as sarcastic.
“I was sarcastically asking journalists like you a question just to see what would happen,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
His comments during his daily press conference Thursday, addressed to doctors in the ward serving in his coronavirus workforce, did not sound like sarcasm.
Medical experts denounced Trump’s suggestions and top Democrats criticized the Republican president.
“It is unfortunate that I have to comment on this, but people should not ingest or inject bleach or disinfectant under any circumstances,” the president of the American Medical Association, Patrice Harris, said in a statement. “Rest assured that when we finally find a COVID-19 vaccine or treatment, you won’t be in the cleaning supply aisle.”
Trump said Thursday that scientists should explore whether inserting ultraviolet light or disinfectant into the bodies of people infected with the coronavirus could help them eliminate the disease.
“Is there any way we can do something like that by injection, in, or almost cleaning?” Trump asked. “It would be interesting to see that.”
Repeatedly pressured on the subject on Friday, Trump said he was not encouraging people to ingest disinfectants.
Trump has also promoted an antimalarial drug called hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 even though its effectiveness is unproven and there are concerns about heart problems. The US Food and Drug Administration. USA He warned on Friday against the use of hydroxychloroquine in patients with COVID-19 outside of hospitals and clinical trials, citing risks of serious heart rhythm problems.
Reckitt Benckiser, a British company that makes Dettol and Lysol household disinfectants, issued a statement warning people not to ingest or inject their products.
The American Cleaning Institute, which represents the US cleaning products industry. The US said in a statement: “Disinfectants are intended to kill germs or viruses on hard surfaces. They should never be used on the skin, ingested, or injected internally.”
There were early indications that at least some Americans were preparing to act on Trump’s comments. A spokesman for the Maryland governor wrote on Twitter that the state Emergency Management Agency had received more than 100 calls about the use of chlorine to treat COVID-19.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the United States Congress, said she doubted the Republican president was sarcastic, and sarcastically told MSNBC “it seemed he was speaking from his usual great authority on every issue” .
Joe Biden, Trump’s alleged Democratic challenger in the US election on November 3, wrote on Twitter: “I can’t believe I have to say this, but please don’t drink bleach.”
RIDICULOUS TORRENT
Trump’s suggestion sparked a torrent of online teasing, with a comedian on social media app TikTok mimicking the action of injecting bleach into his veins like a drug.
On Twitter, reporters shared a video of Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House task force on the coronavirus, who seemed to look down, shrug, and blink rapidly when Trump said at the briefing that the disinfectant “has a tremendous number on the lightweight. “
The White House initially said Friday that critics were taking Trump’s comments out of context. At an Oval Office event later on Friday, when Trump tried to back down his comments, he also returned to the idea that disinfectants and sunlight could help inside the body.
Health professionals have encouraged people to wash their hands well with soap or to use disinfectants to combat the spread of the virus.
“I think the hand sanitizer could have a very good effect,” Trump said.
“The sun, heat and humidity take it away. And this is from the tests, which have been doing these tests for … several months. And the result, so I said, ‘Well, how do we do it indoors? body or even out of the body with hands and disinfectant, I think it would work. “
While ultraviolet rays are known to kill viruses in airborne droplets, doctors say there is no way that UV light can enter the human body to attack coronavirus-infected cells.
“Neither sitting in the sun nor warming up will kill a virus that replicates in the internal organs of an individual patient,” said Penny Ward, professor of pharmaceutical medicine at Kings College London.
Reuters
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