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U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 23, 2020. /Reuters
During Thursday's coronavirus press briefing, U.S. President Donald Trump provided medical experts with two suggestions on killing the virus after an official presented the results of U.S. government research that indicated coronavirus appeared to weaken more quickly when exposed to sunlight and heat.
Inject disinfectant into body
"I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute," Trump said.
"And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets inside the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that."
Bring light inside body
"And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside of 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 continued.
"I'm not a doctor. But I'm, like, a person that has a good you-know-what," he added.
Answers from doctors: Dangerous, and people will die
William Bryan, acting head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, who outlined the findings at the news conference, said that the laboratory has not considered such a treatment, and heat and humidity alone will not kill the virus if people do not continue to maintain social distance.
Dr Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, echoed that the advice will not be a treatment.
"I mean, certainly, fever is a good thing. When you have a fever, it helps your body respond. But I've not seen heat or light," said Dr Birx.
Screenshot from Twitter
"My concern is that people will die. People will think this is a good idea," Craig Spencer, director of global health in emergency medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, told
The Washington Post
. "This is not willy-nilly, off-the-cuff, maybe-this-will-work advice. This is dangerous."
Pulmonologist Dr Vin Gupta told NBC News: "This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible and it's dangerous."
Other doctors also called his comments "irresponsible," "extremely dangerous" and "frightening" in interviews as they rushed to warn people of the dire consequences of ingesting caustic chemicals.
Screenshot from Twitter
The president's remarks have also provoked a public outcry on social media and many media outlets have warned people not to follow the president's suggestions.
Lysol and Dettol maker Reckitt Benckiser Plc has also stated that "under no circumstance" should its disinfectant products be administered into the human body, through injection, ingestion or any other route.
Social distancing more scientific
Dr. Jason Christie, pulmonology division chief at Penn Medicine, suggested healthy habits for social distancing should be part of everyone's wellness practice right now.
Shigeru Omi, the doctor leading Japan's response to coronavirus, has urged the Japanese public to increase its social distancing, warning that a failure to comply would mean the state of emergency in Japan would need to stay in place for longer.
Luckily, Trump said that his administration may extend its national social distancing guidelines until early in the summer or later.
"We may, and we may go beyond that," Trump said at the briefing when asked if the federal guidelines would need to be extended at least until the start of summer.
"We're going to have to see where it is," Trump said. "I think people are going to know just out of common sense. At some point, we won't have to do that. But until we feel safe, we're going to be extending."
The federal guidelines, which were first shared in mid-March and had already been extended once, were set to expire at the end of April.
