According to reports from the New York Poison Control Center, 30 incidents involving cleaning products were recorded in the last 18 hours; after President Donald Trump said that injecting disinfectant cures the virus.
NEW YORK (EFE) – The New York Poison Control Center received about 30 calls yesterday, on Friday April 25 2020, regarding exposure to chlorine, the disinfectant Lysol and other cleaning products shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that injecting these products into a vein could help treat the coronavirus.
The department handled nine cases of exposure to Lysol disinfectant over the phone, 10 related to chlorine and 11 to other household cleaning products in an 18-hour period before 3 p.m. Friday.
The Poison Control Center did not specify what type of exposure occurred in these cases, whether by skin contact or ingestion, but it does report that none required hospital admission or resulted in any deaths.
The Center’s data show a significant increase over those handled in the same 18-hour period in 2019, in which two cases related to bleach and thirteen cases related to household cleaning products were handled. This Friday’s cases occur despite the chain reaction of the scientific community to Trump’s Thursday comments, which have made his voice heard in rejection.
Manufacturers of disinfectants used in millions of homes, especially during the pandemic, have also issued statements saying their products should not be consumed.
Reckitt Benckiser, the British company that makes the disinfectant Lysol, referred in a statement Friday to “recent speculation and social media activity” to deny that it can be ingested or injected.
“As a global leader in hygiene and health products we must make it clear that under no circumstances should our disinfectant products be administered inside the human body (whether by injection, ingestion or any other route),” the company said.
Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the government’s Food and Drug Administration, and a member of the White House working group on covid-19, said he would “certainly not recommend the ingestion of a disinfectant”.
Craig Spencer, a physician in global health at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, said he is concerned that “people could die from this”. There will be those who think it’s a good idea,” he added in an interview with The Washington Post. Trump’s suggestion “is not a small thing, something said in passing, an idea that this might work. It’s dangerous,” he added.
On Friday, Trump said his comments during Thursday’s coronavirus taskforce briefing had been made “sarcastically”.
What did Trump say?
During Thursday’s White House coronavirus task force briefing, an official presented the results of US government research that indicated coronavirus appeared to weaken faster when exposed to sunlight and heat.
The study also showed bleach could kill the virus in saliva or respiratory fluids within five minutes, and isopropyl alcohol could kill it even more quickly.
Mr Trump then hypothesised about the possibility of using a “tremendous ultraviolet” or “just very powerful light” on or even inside the body as a potential treatment.
“And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute,” he said. “And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and does a tremendous number on them, so it’d be interesting to check that,” Trump said.
Source: The Yucatan Times
