President Donald Trump's response to the global pandemic that's killed nearly 50 thousand Americans has been anything but heartening.
The Trump administration's slowed response and its continued insufficient testing apparatus have Americans concerned that deaths, job losses, and stay-at-home orders will only persevere until a vaccine is finally found and distributed, which likely won't be for another year at least.
Those watching the President's Thursday press briefing weren't given much reason for optimism.
It started when William Bryan, Acting Homeland Security Under Secretary for Science and Technology, spoke about the most effective methods for removing the saliva droplets through which the virus is spread from surfaces used every day. Bryan hailed the use of disinfectant like bleach, which kills the virus in five minutes, to isopropyl alcohol, which kills the virus in less than a minute.
He thanked the President before Trump returned to the podium and began thinking aloud about a way to apply Bryan's information to human bodies instead of surfaces.
Watch below.
After floating the possibility of getting ultraviolet light into the body, Trump said:
"I see the disinfectant knocks it out in a minute, one minute. Is there a way we can do something like that? By injection, inside or almost a cleaning? Cause you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it'd be interesting to check that. You're gonna have to use medical doctors, right? But it sounds interesting to me."
The President appeared to be musing whether or not injecting disinfectant into the lungs could be a viable option for curing the virus.
In case you weren't sure, this is not a good idea.
The stupidity has reached a new low.
At least two people have consumed a toxic form of aquarium cleaner because they mistook one of its ingredients—chloroquine—for hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that the President has baselessly claimed could be a cure. One of those people has since died.
It bears repeating: please don't consume bleach.
For a deeper look into the dangers of the Trump presidency, check out A Very Stable Genius, available here.
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