Don't injecting disinfectants unless you are a stupid GOPer....

Lysol maker warns against injecting disinfectants after Trump floats coronavirus theory

The American Cleaning Institute also objected to the president’s proposed cure.

By QUINT FORGEY

Reckitt Benckiser, the British company responsible for making Lysol, warned Friday against the “internal administration” of their products after President Donald Trump suggested injecting disinfectants into the human body as a potential cure for the coronavirus.

“As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),” the company said in a news release, citing “recent speculation and social media activity.”

“As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines,” the company added. “Please read the label and safety information.”

The statement from the multinational consumer goods firm came after the president floated dangerous coronavirus treatment theories at a White House news conference Thursday evening, and urged administration officials to explore the potential application of disinfectants to Covid-19 patients.

“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it 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 said. “Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that. So you’re going to have to use medical doctors with — but it sounds interesting to me.”

The American Cleaning Institute, which represents the manufacturers and formulators of various cleaning products, also published a news release Friday “in response to speculation about the use of disinfectants in or on one’s body.”

“Disinfectants are meant to kill germs or viruses on hard surfaces. Under no circumstances should they ever be used on one’s skin, ingested or injected internally,” the ACI said. “We remind everyone to please use all hygiene, cleaning and disinfecting products as directed in order to ensure safe, effective and intended use of those products.”

In addition to disinfectants, the president on Thursday promoted the potential therapeutic effects of different types of light in treating the coronavirus, using the unfounded medical hypothesis to bolster his claims that the outbreak could be blunted by the warmer weather of the summer season.

“So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it,” Trump told reporters. “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 president directed most of his scientific queries at the briefing to Bill Bryan, the acting undersecretary of Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security, who described recent research on how sunlight, heat and humidity affect the coronavirus on surfaces.

But Bryan said the study did not examine sunlight as a possible treatment, adding that the work had not been peer-reviewed and that its findings should not detract from federal guidance issued by the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — including social distancing and other mitigation measures.

“It would be irresponsible for us to say that we feel that the summer is just going to totally kill the virus, and that it’s a free-for-all, and that people ignore those guidance,” Bryan said. “That is not the case.”

Trump also pressed Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, on whether “the heat and the light” could help heal Covid-19 patients. “Not as a treatment. I mean, certainly, fever — is a good thing. When you have a fever, it helps your body respond. But not as — I’ve not seen heat or light,” Birx said.

The White House on Friday morning revised its official transcript of Thursday’s news conference to edit that particular exchange between Trump and Birx, after inaccurately reporting in its initial record of the briefing that she had agreed with the president. “That is a treatment,” Birx was quoted as saying in the first version of the transcript, before the document was altered to reflect her actual statements.