Trump says his virus-killer idea was ‘sarcastic’

Doctors, disinfectant-makers quick to shoot down theory

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump walked back his suggestion that scientists test whether disinfectants, like bleach, could be injected inside the human body to fight the coronavirus, claiming Friday that he had said it sarcastically.

The president offered his idea in the White House briefing room Thursday after a presentation that mentioned that disinfectants can kill the novel coronavirus on surfaces and in the air.

“I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute,” Trump said during Thursday’s coronavirus news briefing. “And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets inside the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.”

Trump’s comment got blowback from doctors and other health officials Friday. It also prompted warnings from the makers of popular commercial products.

“We must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body [through injection, ingestion or any other route],” said a statement from the parent of the company that makes Lysol and Dettol, Reckitt Benckiser.

“Bleach and other disinfectants are not suitable for consumption or injection under any circumstances,” declared Clorox Co.

When asked Friday during a bill signing in the Oval Office to expand upon this, Trump said it wasn’t intended as a serious suggestion.

“I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” Trump said.

“My concern is that people will die. People will think this is a good idea,” Craig Spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/ Columbia University Medical Center, told The Washington

Post. “This is not willy-nilly, off-the-cuff, maybe-this-willwork advice. This is dangerous.”

In a statement Friday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany did not say the president had been joking, but rather that Trump had said Americans should consult their doctors about treatment. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams released a statement reiterating that Friday morning.

McEnany accused the media of taking Trump’s words out of context.

“President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterday’s briefing,” she said.

DOCTORS DISMAYED

Trump’s query came immediately after William Bryan, the acting undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, gave a presentation on the potential impact of summer heat and humidity, which also included references to tests that showed the effectiveness of different types of disinfectants. He recounted data from recent tests that showed how bleach, alcohol and sunlight could kill the coronavirus on surfaces.

Bryan said bleach killed the virus in about five minutes and isopropyl alcohol killed it in 30 seconds. In tests, sunlight and high temperatures also appeared to shorten the virus’s life on surfaces and in the air, Bryan said.

Trump then asked about injecting an unspecified disinfectant into the lungs of covid-19 patients. He also raised the possibility of using light to combat the viral infection and suggested consulting medical doctors on these questions.

“So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn’t been checked but you’re going to test it,” Trump said to Bryan. “And then, I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way.”

He continued: “And I think you said you’re going to test that, too. Sounds interesting.”

Later in the briefing, Trump turned to one of his top public health experts, Dr. Deborah Birx, who serves as the response coordinator for the White House’s coronavirus task force, and asked if she had any knowledge of heat or light being used as a potential treatment for covid-19.

“Not as a treatment,” Birx said. “I mean, certainly fever is a good thing. When you have a fever, it helps your body respond.”

“He was riffing,” said Jason Miller, who served as communications director to Trump’s 2016 campaign. “He wasn’t, saying, ‘Go and pump Lysol into your veins.’ But when you riff from the podium, it allows other people to define what your intent was.”

Other doctors stepped forward after the briefing to challenge the president, calling his comments “irresponsible,” “extremely dangerous” and “frightening” in interviews with The Post.

“I can understand looking to medicines that might have some effect or some sort of studies in a petri dish showing that they might work on a virus,” said Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist and emergency physician at University Hospitals in Cleveland. “But talking about putting ultraviolet radiation inside of the human body or putting antiseptic things that are toxic to life inside of living people, it doesn’t make any sense anymore.”

Doctors told The Post that Trump’s remarks could pose risks to the lives of those who interpret the words as a suggestion to try the unproven treatments themselves.

“People will do extraordinary things if you give them the idea,” said Dara Kass, associate professor of emergency medicine at Columbia University Medical Center.

Even before the president’s questions, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Monday found that U.S. poison control centers were seeing a surge in calls about exposure to cleaners and disinfectants amid the coronavirus outbreak. Between January and March, there were 45,550 calls — a 20.4 percent increase from the same period last year.

People who ingest such chemicals often die, Kass said. Those who survive usually end up with feeding tubes, a result of their mouth and esophagus being eroded by the cleaning agents. “It’s horrific,” she said. Some lawmakers also expressed alarm. During an NPR interview Friday morning, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., described the president as “a quack medicine salesman.”

Thursday wasn’t the first time the president has talked up prospects for new therapies. He has repeatedly promoted the drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential “game changer” in the fight against the virus.

State and local governments across the U.S. have obtained more than 30 million doses of the drug.

Supporters say having a supply on hand makes sense in case the drug is shown to be effective against the pandemic that has devastated the global economy and killed nearly 200,000 people worldwide, and to ensure a steady supply for people who need it for other conditions such as lupus.

On Friday, however, the Food and Drug Administration warned that people should not take chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to treat covid-19 outside of a hospital or formal clinical trial, citing reports of “serious heart rhythm problems.”

Earlier this week, former BARDA director Rick Bright said he was demoted from his job leading the agency because he resisted political pressure to allow widespread use of hydroxychloroquine. He has called for a federal investigation and reinstatement to his job.

Information for this article was contributed by Allyson Chiu, Katie Shepherd, Brittany Shammas, Jennifer Hassan and Colby Itkowitz of The Washington Post; by Deb Riechmann,Aamer Madhani, Matthew Perrone, Marilynn Marchione, Brady McCombs, Lindsay Whitehurst, Zeke Miller, Darlene Superville, Susan Haigh, Don Thompson, Melinda Deslatte, Gary Robertson, Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Andrew Selsky, Amy Forliti, Paul Weber, John Hanna, Kimberlee Kruesi, Summer Ballentine, Emily Wagster, Sean Murphy and Marina Villeneuve of The Associated Press; and by William J. Broad and Dan Levin of The New York Times.