By Kate Kelland
LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - Doctors and health experts
urged people not to drink or inject disinfectant on Friday after
U.S. President Donald Trump suggested scientists should
investigate inserting the cleaning agent into the body as a way
to cure COVID-19.
"(This is an) absolutely dangerous crazy suggestion," said
Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain's University of
East Anglia.
"You may not die of COVID-19 after injecting disinfectant,
but only because you may already be dead from the injection."
Trump said at his daily media briefing on Thursday that
scientists should explore whether inserting light or
disinfectant into the bodies of people infected with the new
coronavirus might help them clear the disease.
"Is there a way we can do something like that by injection,
inside, or almost a cleaning?," he said. "It would be
interesting to check that."
Parastou Donyai, director of pharmacy practice and a
professor of social and cognitive pharmacy at the University of
Reading, said Trump's comments were shocking and unscientific.
He said people worried about the new coronavirus and the
COVID-19 disease it causes should seek help from a qualified
doctor or pharmacist, and "not take unfounded and off-the-cuff
comments as actual advice".
Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University
of California at Berkeley and a former U.S. labour secretary,
added on Twitter: "Trump's briefings are actively endangering
the public's health. Please don't drink disinfectant".
Reading's Donyai said previous comments by Trump had already
been linked to people self-administering medicines or other
products in ways that make them poisonous.
"We have already seen people mistakenly poisoning themselves
by taking chloroquine when their hopes were raised by
unscientific comments," he said.
Reckitt Benckiser, which manufacturers household
disinfectants Dettol and Lysol, issued a statement on Friday
warning people not to ingest or inject its products.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland, Editing by William Maclean)
