Yesterday during his press briefing, Trump suggested that the WH scientists who are testing how to kill the coronavirus check and see if there’s a way to use ultraviolet light or a disinfectant within the body to kill the virus:
President Trump: “Suppose we hit the body with a tremendous light. That hasn't been checked…”
"The disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, & is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning. As you see it gets in the lungs" pic.twitter.com/IixdLZU7um
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 23, 2020
This has led to people suggesting that Trump advocates using an injection of disinfectant to cure coronavirus:
President Trump suggests "injection" of disinfectant to beat coronavirus and "clean" the lungs at the White House daily briefing.
A Dept. of Homeland Security official later said federal laboratories are not considering such a treatment option. https://t.co/yKHhkIIS53
— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 23, 2020
Trump asks if he can inject people with disinfectant to get rid of coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/UQEiNwPYrh
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) April 23, 2020
This will be Exhibit #1 in the class action lawsuit against Donald Trump filed by victims who died after following Trump’s idea of injecting themselves with disinfectant to kill the coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/vpRdIoOyi9
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) April 23, 2020
Of course Pelosi is jumping on the Trump-hating bandwagon:
"Clearly and sadly the president is not listening to medical experts … America must ignore the lies" — a disbelieving Pelosi reads a transcript of Trump's disinfectant comments pic.twitter.com/5P52sVrA9q
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 24, 2020
Even the makers of Lysol came out this morning and told people not to inject themselves with their disinfectants, which lead to headlines like this from Axios: “Lysol maker refutes Trump’s suggestion that disinfectants may treat coronavirus”.
Trump wasn’t suggesting people do this nor was he suggesting it would even work. He was ‘thinking outside of the box’, as they like to say in the business world, and asking his scientists to investigate the possibility.
The tweets are many of people mocking Trump for this, mainly because they love to hate on Trump. But in retrospect it probably wasn’t the smartest thing to say in the briefing, because clearly people can’t handle it.