As you’ve probably heard by now, Thursday, April 23, marked an important moment in the history books, as it was the day that Donald Trump went from dangerous circus clown to actual imminent threat to all Americans. Seizing on scientist Bill Bryan’s presentation showing that sunlight, humidity, and disinfectants can sometimes quickly kill the coronavirus on surfaces, the synapses in Trump’s brain caught fire, leading him to conclude that, perhaps, people should start injecting cleaning fluid into their veins. “I see disinfectant, where it knocks [the coronavirus] out in a minute—one minute—and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning,” Trump mused on live TV. “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.”

As millions of Americans obviously know, this was a horrible suggestion, given that disinfectants like isopropyl alcohol, bleach, and cleaners such as Lysol and Clorox are highly toxic and are not safe for internal use. (In fact, there’s been a recent surge in accidental poisonings, and that’s not among people shooting them up like heroin.) Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who actually listen to the words coming out of the president’s mouth, so when he hypes unproven drugs as a cure for COVID-19—drugs that later turn out to be ineffective at best and deadly at worst—or suggests they try chugging household cleaner, there’s a strong possibility they might actually take him up on it. (According to the Washington Post, Maryland's COVID-19 hotline has received 100 calls re: ingesting disinfectants.) Which led to, on Friday, what we believe is the first known instance of a manufacturer of a product that carries a poison label on the side of the bottle having to put out a statement effectively saying, “Please don’t listen to the president of the United States when he tells you to drink this.”

On Friday morning, the maker of Lysol and Dettol, Reckitt Benckiser Plc, issued a statement that “under no circumstance” should its disinfectant products be administered into the human body, through injection, ingestion or any other route. The company said it was issuing the guidance after it was asked whether internal administration of disinfectants “may be appropriate for investigation or use as a treatment for coronavirus,” amid recent speculation and social media activity.

The White House, of course, has tried to spin the incident as another example of the “FAKE NEWS MEDIA” trying to take Trump down, with new press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claiming the president’s comments were taken out of context, and that even though he quite clearly suggested maybe injecting disinfectant would cure coronavirus, he also “said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment.” (For his part, Trump angrily snapped at Washington Post reporter Phillip Rucker for having the audacity to point out that pushing unproven treatments is dangerous, telling Rucker “I’m the president, and you’re fake news.” On Friday, he claimed he was totally just being sarcastic when he said ingesting disinfectant could be a cure.)

And in a totally unrelated report from the New York Times that certainly shouldn’t be viewed as some kind of critique of Trump’s process:

Mr. Trump rarely attends the task force meetings that precede the briefings, and he typically does not prepare before he steps in front of the cameras. He is often seeing the final version of the day’s main talking points that aides have prepared for him for the first time although aides said he makes tweaks with a Sharpie just before he reads them live.

Anyway, stay tuned for next week when Trump wonders aloud if there would be any merit to freebasing rat poison when it comes to killing the virus, adding, of course, that one should consult with their doctor before doing so.

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