Trump ‘Can’t Imagine Why’ Disinfectant Calls Have Spiked

Less than one week after Donald Trump suggested coronavirus could be treated by injecting disinfectant into the body, the US president has said he ‘can’t imagine why’ calls to hotlines about the substance have spiked.

His comments came during yesterday’s news conference when he was asked by a reporter about the state of Maryland’s emergency hotline, which has received hundreds of calls in recent days from people asking if they should inject disinfectant or ingest it in any other way.

The governors of Michigan and Maryland blamed the president for the spike in these calls over the weekend, with a reporter asking Trump yesterday: ‘Governor Larry Hogan specifically said they’ve seen a spike in people using disinfectant after your comments last week. I know you said they were sarcastic?’

This is in spite of the fact the president clearly suggested the use of disinfectant as a potential treatment for coronavirus last Thursday, April 23, after an official presented the results of US government research that showed the virus could be killed in minutes by bleach.

‘I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute,’ Trump said on Thursday. ‘And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because, you see, it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number.’

He then told his top public health officials, including coronavirus task force member Deborah Birx, to ‘check that’. Obviously, doctors and healthcare professionals were horrified by his suggestion, and companies that produce disinfectant were forced to issue statements to deter people from following Trump’s suggestion.

The president later dismissed the whole thing, telling reporters: ‘I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,’ in reference to his extremely hostile relationship with the media.

The thing is though, even if he did ‘just’ say it sarcastically, or as a way to test the ‘fake news media’, Trump has a responsibility to protect the people he is presiding over.

And suggesting that you might be able to inject disinfectant, a chemical, poisonous substance, to treat anything – never mind a disease that has already killed tens of thousands of people throughout the country – is an extremely dangerous and irresponsible thing to do.

It’s time the president steps up and takes responsibility for his actions, because quite frankly, it’s never been more important.