The Maryland Emergency Management Agency had to remind residents not to use disinfectant to treat COVID-19 after the president floated the possibility the day before.
“This is a reminder that under no circumstances should any disinfectant product be administered into the body through injection, ingestion or any other route,” the office tweeted Friday.
The common-sense clarification had to be made after President Donald Trump falsely and dangerously suggested disinfectant and light could potentially cure a disease that has killed more than 50,000 Americans.
“Suppose that we hit the body with tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that it hasn’t been checked and you’re going to test it,” Trump said at a press conference Thursday. “Suppose you can bring the light inside the body.”
“Then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in one minute,” he continued. “Is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? … It would be interesting to check that.”
Trump later walked back the statement and stopped short of apologizing by claiming his comments were “sarcastic,” even though he had made them in apparent earnestness to medical professionals.
Maryland needed to issue an alert after the state’s emergency hotline received more than 100 calls asking about fake disinfectant cures, tweeted Mike Ricci, communications director of the Maryland governor’s office.
The Guardian first reported that Mark Grenon, a Florida-based producer and distributor of chlorine dioxide bleach, sent a letter to the White House earlier this week touting his so-called “miracle cure.” Grenon reportedly said in the letter that drinking chlorine dioxide is “a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body” and “can rid the body of COVID-19.” It can’t.
Days later, the president touted the same pseudo-science to millions of Americans.
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