At the beginning of the pandemic, Trump handed off the Covid-19 response to Vice President Mike Pence because “He didn’t have anything to do.” Pence actually conducted some informative briefings though he continues to ignore science like showing up at the Mayo clinic without a mask. Every visitor at the Mayo clinic must wear a mask. When Trump saw the ratings of Pences briefings, he decided he indeed had time to stand in front of the microphone. The White house Covid-19 briefings became mini rallies and a chance for Trump to play the blame game. His concern didn’t seem to be the health and well being of the nation but his re-election chances.
On April 4, 2020 Trump was pushing an anti malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine as a cure to Covid-19. From the podium he pushed the rug like a snake oil salesman, saying, “What do you have to lose?” “I may take it. I have to ask my doctors,” he added. The Mayo Clinic
released a warning for healthcare providers last week about the dangers
the drug could pose on some patients, which includes it potentially
causing sudden cardiac death when taken. The European Commission
also announced on Tuesday there was no proof hydroxychloroquine or
chloroquine, which is also used for malaria, could treat Covid-19.
His April 23, 2020 briefing was historic. He made the following comments after Bill Bryan, the head of the science and
technology directorate at the Department of Homeland Security, discussed
some research about how COVID-19 reacted to sunlight. This is a transcription of what Trump said… “So I asked Bill a question some of you are thinking of if you’re into
that world, which I find to be pretty interesting. So, supposing we hit
the body with a tremendous, whether its ultraviolet or just very
powerful light, and I think you said, that hasn’t been checked but
you’re gonna test it. And then I said, supposing it brought the light
inside the body, which you can either do either through the skin or some
other way, and I think you said you’re gonna test that too, sounds
interesting. And I then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out
in one minute, and is there a way you 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. So it’d be
interesting to check that. So you’re going to have to use medical
doctors, but it sounds interesting to me, so we’ll see. But the whole
concept of the light, the way it goes in one minute, that’s pretty
powerful.”
As Trump made the comments the reaction of Dr. Deborah Birx sat quietly on the sidelines, her face contorted in agony at what he was saying. Any respect for the doctor was lost as she sat silently. To keep her job she could not directly contradict the POTUS. She has had to defend his fantasies in the following days.
Injecting oneself with bleach or some other sort of disinfectant is not only incredibly dangerous and even life-threatening, but it would not be an effective treatment or cure for COVID-19. In the wake of Trump’s press conference, both doctors and manufacturers of cleaning products like Lysol warned people not to ingest or inject disinfectants.
New York City’s Poison Control Center saw a spike in the number of
people ingesting household cleaners after United States President Donald
Trump raised the possibility of using disinfectant inside people’s bodies to fight Covid-19. The non-profit National Public Radio (NPR) reported that the center
registered 30 cases in an 18-hour period ending at 3pm on Friday (April
24), as opposed to only 13 cases for the same time frame a year ago. Nine of the cases were related to exposure to Lysol, 10 were
“specifically about bleach” and 11 were exposures to other household
cleaners, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene spokesman
Pedro Frisneda told NPR.