Donald Trump’s suggestion to ‘inject disinfectants’ to kill the coronavirus leaves medical world stunned

If you thought that the theories postulated by US President Donald Trump were ridiculous, you haven’t heard the best one yet. In the latest press briefing, the US President suggested that people could inject themselves with disinfectants or bleach to kill the virus.

“And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute,” 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 and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that. So, that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me,” Trump said in the press briefing, much to the shock of those present there.

While speaking to CNN, US FDA Commissioner Dr Stephen Hahn, who is also a member of the coronavirus taskforce in the United States, said he would ‘strongly not recommend’ the internal ingestion of a disinfectant.

In 1992, a medical paper published by DL Morgan from the Division of Emergency Medicine in the University of Texas highlighted the case of a 31-year-old man who experienced chest pain and vomiting after injecting himself with less than 1ml of disinfectant.

The FDA warns against ingesting disinfectants, saying consumption of “products can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrohea, and symptoms of severe dehydration.”

This is how Twitter has reacted to the statement

In fact when one journalist questioned the US President about the claims, Trump responded, “I’m the president; you’re fake news.”

Earlier, a public health official of the Trump Administration has said that sunlight, heat and humidity can create conditions that are less favourable for the spread of coronavirus,.

The results of a just concluded scientific study conducted by the Science and Technology Directorate of the US Department of Homeland Security, announced during a White House news conference on coronavirus, could be good news for India in its fight against COVID-19.

“Coronavirus dies at a much more rapid pace when exposed to sunlight and humidity. The virus dies the quickest in direct sunlight. Isopropyl alcohol will kill the virus in 30 seconds,” Bill Bryan, the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Science and Technology told White House reporters in the presence of President Donald Trump.

“Our most striking observation to date is the powerful affect that solar light appears to have on killing the virus both surfaces and in the air. We have seen in a similar effect with both temperature and humidity as well where increasing the temperature and humidity or both is generally less favourable to the virus,” Bryan said.

Bryan said his department is also testing disinfectants, readily available.

“We have tested bleach, we have tested isopropyl alcohol on the virus specifically in saliva or respiratory fluids,” he said.

“Bleach will kill the virus in five minutes, isopropyl alcohol will kill the virus in 30 seconds and that is with no manipulation no rubbing, just spring it on and leaving it go. You rub it and it goes away even faster.” “We are also looking at other disinfectants specifically looking at the COVID-19 virus in saliva,” he added.

The study, he said has identified some of the weak links in the chain that the transmission of the virus depends upon.

“We identified that heat and humidity is a weakness in that chain. We’ve identified that sunlight, solar light, UV rays is a weakness in the chain,” he said.

With agency inputs