Doctors: Trump's disinfectant comments "dangerous"
The maker of common household cleaners such as Lysol on Friday warned consumers against using its products to treat the novel coronavirus.
The caution comes after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested researchers try putting disinfectants into patients' bodies.
(SOUBDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:
"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, in one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning."
On its website, Lysol and Dettol maker Reckitt Benckiser wrote, "under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion, or any other route)."
Likewise, doctors and health experts urged people not to drink disinfectant.
A professor of medicine at Britain's university of East Anglia told Reuters, "You may not die of COVID-19 after injecting disinfectant, but only because you may already be dead from the injection."
Trump brought up disinfectant at his daily media briefing on Thursday.
He also discussed a study which found that heat, sunlight and humidity seem to weaken the virus that causes COVID-19.
He suggested testing whether sunlight could be used to cure the disease in human patients.
(SOUBDBITE) (English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:
"Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that has not been checked but you're going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you're going to test that, too, sounds interesting.
The White House said on Friday that Trump had been taken out of context and had urged people to seek coronavirus treatment only after conferring with their doctors.
Trump has previously pushed unproven treatments for the illness, including an anti-malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine.
A recent U.S. government study found that treatment may have increased mortality among patients at U.S. VA hospitals.
