What Trump Actually Said About the Use of Disinfectants as a Potential Cure to Coronavirus

Why is it that so many on the political left feel the need to twist Donald Trump’s words or even tell lies about what Trump said in order to attack him? On April 24th, the Internet blew up after Trump discussed the potential use of disinfectant to treat people suffering from COVID-19 infections. Many FB and Twitter posts falsely claim or suggest that Trump told members of the public to drink disinfectant or inject themselves with disinfectant. Trump did not say or suggest either of these things.

Disinfectant

Before I proceed, I should make clear what I think of the President.  In my opinion, Donald Trump is a pathological liar.  He is a proudly ignorant. He is a xenophobe and a narcissist. He is modern day philistine. He lacks empathy for real people and he is a bully with mob boss tendencies. His ignorance, lies, inaction and incompetence throughout the month of February failed the American people as the Corona Virus to spread throughout the United States. I’ve seen ample evidence to prove all of these things. These are some of the many reasons Trump will go down in history as an abysmally incompetent politician.

That said, here are Trump’s actual words regarding disinfectant:

“So I asked Bill a question some of you are thinking of if you’re into that world, which I find to be pretty interesting. So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether its ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said, that hasn’t been checked but you’re gonna test it. And then I said, supposing it brought the light inside the body, which you can either do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you’re gonna test that too, sounds interesting. And I then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute, and is there a way you 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 on the lungs. So it’d be interesting to check that. So you’re going to have to use medical doctors, but it sounds interesting to me, so we’ll see. But the whole concept of the light, the way it goes in one minute, that’s pretty powerful.”

[As he made his statement, Trump repeatedly looked at Bill Bryan, the head of the science and technology directorate at the Department of Homeland Security]

Over the past months, Trump has shown hostility to science. On April 4, Trump brashly touted the use of a malaria drug for COVID-19, even though the drug had never been subject to double-blind studies. Despite these serious shortcomings regarding science and medicine, Trump did not suggest that people should ingest or inject disinfectant.  Trump was wondering out loud whether coronavirus could be cured using disinfectant. He said (looking at Bill Bryan), “So it’d be interesting to check that.” He wasn’t telling people to get treated using disinfectant, as he recklessly did regarding Hydroxychloroquine.

Here is my suggestion: Whenever people on the political left concoct or embellish facts as they attack Trump, they lose credibility. When they do this, they open themselves up to accusations that they have Trump Derangement Syndrome. Most importantly, when they take liberties with facts, they are doing the same thing Trump often does and this risks losing potential November votes from people from the political center and right.

It is my hope that we on the left would become more self-critical about our own reckless use of accusations. Truly, there are plenty of good reasons for condemning Trump without making shit up.

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 5 Comments

  1. Avatar of Lindy
    Lindy

    Absolutely agree, he did not tell citizens to rush out and consume or inject disinfectants. He even surmised that a doctor might be required to do such a thing.

    So the problems start with why would the President of the United States of America be so ignorant to suggest researching this sort of treatment? A kid of 7 knows that it is dangerous to mess with the bottles under the sink.

    On top of that ridiculous question, to the people to the right of the podium, he felt the need to walk-back his action by saying he was being sarcastic to the press to see what would happen. It is clear he was not talking to the press. If he has such hair-brained ideas it would be best if he run it by his team in private so he doesn’t make an international fool of himself and the country.

    Almost lastly… if that was sarcasm, and nobody but his cult members would believe it was, what possessed him to think a pandemic that has killed thousands of Americans was an appropriate time to exercise such poor judgment!?

    And lastly: There has been a surge in cases of people needing medical assistance due to their trust in Trump.( The Chosen One)

    “States see spike in poison control calls following Trump’s comments on injecting disinfectant”
    https://www.foxnews.com/us/states-spike-poison-control-calls

    *** I chose FoxNews as that is the only source these people believe.***

    Please stay safe and Healthy and check with your doctor before you do anything Trump tells you to do.
    April 27 2020

  2. Avatar of erichvieth
    erichvieth

    This writer at the NYT is still getting it wrong:

    “Trump’s unmoored assertions add up to a horror story, from his failure on testing to his advice to inject bleach to encouraging rowdy protesters and impatient states to “LIBERATE” from the government’s own guidelines to perpetrating the suicidal idea that we have to choose between public health and the economy when they are the same thing.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/09/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-trump-vampires.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

  3. Avatar of K. M
    K. M

    Hydroxychloroquine has never been subjected to double-blind studies? wtf? It’s only been used by hundreds of millions of people for over 50 years.
    sure. Get vaccinated by something that’s never been double-blind studied. LMAO.

  4. Avatar of Bill Heath
    Bill Heath

    K.M., you are spot on Hydroxychloroquine has proven safe by usage and clinical observations. It’s used so much because it’s the safest drug found to mediate the immune system in autoimmune diseases.

    Lindy, thinking out loud is typical of Trump. Bad choice to do it in front of cameras; worse choice for “journalists” lying about what he said.

    Trump’s instinct wasn’t bad. There are “disinfectants” that we use in special situations with diseases. Heavy metal poisoning is “disinfected” using chelating agents. In cases where kidneys are unable to filter poisons from the blood, we disinfect the blood by running it through a machine that includes something called monumental columns that attract specific pollutants as the blood runs through. We call this dialysis.

    I’m not going to spend any more time researching the idea of shining a light inside the body. An LED can be designed to emit UVC, which kills viruses. The smallest size for an LED is about 2mm by 1mm. A power source might not be necessary. An interventional cardiologist or interventional radiologist should be able to examine a great deal of the veins and arteries in less than one hour in a procedure with minimal risks. This won’t cure COVID19, but could significantly reduce viral load. I haven’t practiced medicine since the dark ages, which is three+ decades, and I could probably engineer the thing.

  5. Avatar of John Henry
    John Henry

    So how many people died in Africa due to COVID-19? Just curious because they use Hydroxychloroquine, you know, the malaria drug, all the time. And hostility to science? I bet you are one of those people who yells (or worse) at other people for not wearing a mask. Even Fauci knew way back in the beginning that masks do nothing. And there were studies regarding the efficacy of masks, or lack thereof, on viruses going back to 2015. So yeah, science.

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