PRESIDENT Donald Trump has said that he “can’t imagine why” the increase in people using disinfectant has risen since last week. The president made the comment during his press conference on Monday when being questioned by a reporter. During the Rose Garden press conference, a journalist told Trump that there had been a “spike” in […]
PRESIDENT Donald Trump has said that he “can’t imagine why” the increase in people using disinfectant has risen since last week.
The president made the comment during his press conference on Monday when being questioned by a reporter.
During the Rose Garden press conference, a journalist told Trump that there had been a “spike” in the amount of people using disinfectant.
Responding to the comment, the president said: “I can’t imagine why. I can’t imagine why.”
The reporter then asked if Trump takes any responsibility for the rise in the figure, to which he replied “no, I don’t”.
Last week, the president was criticized for suggesting that injecting disinfecting might help kill the coronavirus.
Trump noted that the Department of Homeland Security showed how disinfectants – including alcohol and bleach – can be used on surfaces to kill the virus.
“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute.
“And is there a way we can do something like that?
“By injecting 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,” Trump said.
However, the next day the president said that his comments were “sarcastic”.
Trump said: “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen.”
He continued: “I was asking a sarcastic and a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside.
“But it does kill it and it would kill it on the hands, and that would make things much better.”
To make sure that no one took the president’s advice seriously, the FDA and several disinfectant companies produced guidelines advising people to not inject the chemicals.
Dr Deborah Birx, a member of the president’s coronavirus taskforce, said that Trump had been having a “dialogue” with a Homeland Security scientist about information he had recently been told about how light, heat and disinfectants affect the virus.
“We have made it clear, and when he turned to me, I made it clear and he understood that it was not as a treatment. And I think that kind of dialogue will happen,” Birx said.
