Washington (CNN) Doctors are rejecting the idea floated by President Donald Trump that research should be done into whether chemical disinfectants could be injected into human bodies as a potential coronavirus treatment.

There's "absolutely no merit" to the idea of injecting disinfectant, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said at a CNN coronavirus town hall shortly after Trump's suggestion on Thursday night. Such a treatment doesn't need to be tested, Gupta said, because it's already known that it would be harmful.

"The idea that we would do a trial of some sort, inject some people with disinfectant and some people not and see what happens ... I think everybody would know that that would be dangerous and counterproductive, and not at all moving us in the right direction," Gupta added.

The latest unproven and dangerous medical treatment peddled by Trump was made shortly after Bill Bryan -- a senior official at the US Department of Homeland Security who is not a scientist nor does he have a medical background -- said at a White House press briefing that studies on the virus showed bleach kills coronavirus in about five minutes, and isopropyl alcohol destroys it even faster.

Trump later remarked on the effectiveness of disinfectants and wondered whether they could be used to treat the virus in humans.