Washington — The major producer of disinfectant products warned against using its items as a treatment for the new coronavirus, after US President Donald Trump appeared to have floated a variation on the idea during a televised press conference at the White House.
“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 Reckitt Benckiser Group said on Friday, noting that its comment was “due to recent speculation.”
The words “under no circumstance” were written in bold.
The company makes products like Lysol and Dettol.
“I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute,” Trump said during the daily White House briefing on Thursday. “Is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning?”
He added that if it gets “inside the lungs” it can do “a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.” He said medical experts would need to investigate.
Earlier in his remarks the president also spoke about “hitting the body” with “ultraviolet or just very powerful light,” and then “supposing you brought the light inside the body.”
Trump was speaking on the back of an official showing research that indicated coronavirus was weakened by exposure to sunlight and heat, and that bleach would also kill the virus.
Health officials were alarmed by the president’s off-the-cuff remarks.
Washington state’s health department was among those warning against ingesting disinfectants.
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