Hours after President Donald Trump suggested injecting chemicals into the body to treat the coronavirus, the number of calls to New York’s Poison Control Center doubled.
The center received 30 calls within 18 hours of Trump’s comments at a press briefing, according to NBC New York. In comparison, the center received a mere 13 cases in the same span of time last year.
Between 9 p.m. Thursday and 3 p.m. Friday, there were 10 bleach-related calls, nine cases of potential Lysol poisoning and 11 cases concerning other chemicals. Trump made the inflammatory comments during a press conference on Thursday.
“Then I see the disinfectant, where I see it knocks it out in a minute. Is there a way we can do something like that?” the president asked members of his coronavirus taskforce. “By injection inside or almost a cleaning, as you see it gets into the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.”
Trump’s suggestion was rebuked by experts.
“To be clear, disinfectants are not intended for ingestion either by mouth, by ears, by breathing them in any way, shape or form. And doing so can put people at great risk,” said New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot, according to PIX11.
Dr. Diane P. Calello, the medical director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System, told The New York Times consuming cleaning chemicals may cause “massive organ damage and the blood cells in the body to basically burst.”
“It can definitely be a fatal event,” she added.
Reckitt Benckiser, the manufacturer of Lysol, also cautioned against ingesting their products.
“As a global leader in health and hygiene 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),” the company said in a statement. “As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information.”
After the backlash, Trump claimed he was being facetious when he made the suggestion.
“I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” he said on Friday.
As NBC News pointed out, that is not true. Trump made the comment, unprompted, to coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx and Department of Homeland Security official Bill Bryan during Thursday’s presser.
Later in the same briefing, Bryan said Trump’s supposition would not be tested.
"We won't do that within that lab and our lab," he said before Trump cut him off.
"It wouldn't be through injection. We're talking about through almost a cleaning, sterilization of an area,” Trump said. “Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't work. But it certainly has a big effect if it's on a stationary object."
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany later released a statement condemning the media for making her boss look bad.
"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," McEnany said on Friday. "Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines."
