"Inject Disinfectant" COVID Suggestion
During a live COVID-19 briefing, Trump suggested injecting disinfectant and using UV light inside the body as potential treatments, prompting poison control centers to issue emergency warnings.
During an April 23, 2020 White House coronavirus task force briefing, Trump publicly mused about injecting disinfectant into the human body as a potential COVID-19 treatment. His exact words:
"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. 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 it does a tremendous number on the lungs."
He also suggested that bringing "the light inside the body" through the skin could kill the virus.
The remarks prompted an immediate public health crisis response. Lysol and Dettol manufacturers issued urgent statements warning people not to ingest or inject their products. Poison control centers across the country reported spikes in calls about disinfectant ingestion.
Trump later claimed he was being "sarcastic," but the unedited video clearly shows him turning to Dr. Deborah Birx and asking her to look into these ideas — not the behavior of someone making a joke.