US President’s suggestion to treat coronavirus with disinfectant could lead to deaths | Fact Check

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AFP

April 25, 2020

US President Donald Trump has suggested studying injecting disinfectants into human bodies as a treatment for COVID-19. Medical experts and manufacturers of household cleaning products quickly advised against it, pointing out that the chemicals could not be absorbed by humans and warning that any ingestion could be fatal.

“I see that disinfectant, it knocks it out (the novel coronavirus) in a minute. One minute. Is there any way we can inject it into the (body) and do something like that?” , Trump asked medical advisers at the White House during the daily briefing of the coronavirus task force on Thursday, April 23, 2020.

Such a step was surprised and rejected.

“We must be clear that under no circumstances should our disinfectant products be introduced into the human body (by injection, injection or any other route),” the makers of household detergents Lysol and Dettol wrote in a statement on April 24. The headline was “Inappropriate Use of Disinfectants.”

Dr. Jason McKnight, a physician at Texas A&M University, warned that the pesticide could have serious consequences if used by humans.

Doing anything other than what is written on the labels of these chemicals can be not only dangerous but also life-threatening, he told AFP, referring to patients who have “injected had planted things that should not have been.”

“All of these chemicals, very few of them can be metabolized by the body and therefore can become toxins when they enter the body,” McKnight added.

“Instances that I can think of, these people ended up in the intensive care unit on a lot of antibiotics and sometimes other mechanical life support to keep them alive.”

Kim Barrett, distinguished professor of medicine at the University of California, said: “Injecting bleach or disinfectant into the body would be devastating. These are non-specific ways of killing living cells. So they won’t discriminate and kill human cells as well.” In fact, if people drink bleach, it’s a major medical emergency that destroys the cells lining the mouth, esophagus, and stomach (essentially by chemically burning them) and results in blood. Flushing, chest pain, coma and possibly But death happens.

Nina Yamanes, a health policy expert at American University’s School of International Service, told AFP that the public had unfortunately already shown a tendency to believe the president’s claims during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“We saw it with hydroxychloroquine,” he said, referring to an Arizona man who died after ingesting chloroquine phosphate, an aquarium cleaning product that is currently suspected of causing COVID-19. Understood as a treatment.

“It’s very dangerous for the public to hear these ideas and think they might work,” Yamanis added.

Trump made his comments about disinfectants after a presentation by William Bryan, acting undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, who said tests showed that disinfectants such as bleach or alcohol Can kill the corona virus on surfaces.

Unlike Trump, Brian didn’t speculate about their use inside the human body.

The presentation also noted that heat, humidity and sunlight can shorten the lifespan of the virus. Bryan concluded that summer-like conditions would “create an environment (where) transmission can be reduced,” while acknowledging that summer would not completely eliminate the virus.

In response, Trump suggested retesting for the virus using “ultraviolet or just very powerful light” inside the body. A study using certain types of ultraviolet light has shown positive results for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), another type of illness. The coronavirus, but not COVID-19, is the disease that has gripped the world since emerging in Wuhan, China in December 2019.