Last Thursday, Donald Trump decided to riff during a daily press conference on the pandemic. His riff? It was about how scientists have found that the coronavirus is hampered (on surfaces and in the air) by UV light and household disinfectants. Trump suggested that people might need to find a way to inject disinfectant into their bodies, and get sunlight/UV light into their bodies too. On Friday, I said it for all the dumbasses in the back: do not do this. It’s not as if I want all of those MAGA people to survive and thrive post-pandemic. I just knew that those idiots would find some way to ingest Lysol and then there would be even more of a strain on hospitals and medical workers as they had to deal with mass-poisonings. But… of course that happened anyway. While there hasn’t been a “mass poisoning” issue, there has been an influx of calls to poison control with *questions*. And yes, there’s some indication of a spike in people ingesting cleaners.
States across the country are seeing a spike in poison control calls following President Donald Trump’s comments about injecting coronavirus patients with disinfectant to kill the coronavirus. According to Mike Ricci, the communications director for Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, the state’s Emergency Management Agency saw a surge of over 100 calls inquiring about the president’s remarks.
Due to the influx of calls, the agency issued an alert to remind residents that “under no circumstances should any disinfectant product be administered into the body through injection, ingestion or any other route.” Similarly, New York City saw an increase in “cases of exposure to Lysol, bleach & other cleaners in 18 hours after Trump’s suggestion,” reporter Anna Sanders shared on Twitter, who said the N.Y.C. Poison Control Center saw 30 cases dealing with household cleaners, disinfectants and bleach.
“That’s more than double during same period in 2019, per health dept,” Sanders wrote. “Thankfully no hospitalizations or deaths.”
Not only did various state and local officials have to do damage control, corporations were dunking on Trump as well, issuing statements amounting to PLEASE DO NOT CONSUME OUR PRODUCTS. What made it worse, somehow, was that Trump spent the past three days denying what he said, or blaming the media for what he said, or claiming that he was being sarcastic at the time. He can’t even keep his story straight about that. So, again, people should not consume disinfectants or slice themselves open to expose their blood to UV light.
Reminder: Lysol disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as directed and in line with usage guidelines pic.twitter.com/yPVhvINxbU
— Lysol (@Lysol) April 24, 2020
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
It’s the end of the World as we know it….
…and I feel fine.
(OK, not really. But at least I’m smart enough not to inject lysol! What is WRONG with people?!)
People are scared and desperate and under insured or not insured. The person they trust implicitly (all reason aside) told them to do something that a rational person wouldn’t, but again they’re scared and desperate for something they can do.
It is just so sad that instead of getting facts and science from our leader, we get this.
Everything you said. But they will likely still vote for him because he appreciates and stokes their anger about issues that matter to them.
We really are in the dumbest timeline. Imagine being so incompetent, you call yourself the business president yet find ways to make American companies balk at exploiting a pandemic. Amazing, you found the line they wouldn’t cross.
I feel like this whole situation is a terrible dream…🤦🏻♀️
People in his camp acted like the media was ridiculous for continuing to bring up Trump’s comments and caution people against following his advice. Clearly it wasn’t ridiculous, and I’m glad the media mocked him to the fullest extent, because he’s shameful, idiotic, and dangerous.
Other countries have these very powerful, intelligent, thoughtful leaders (ahem, many of them women) who are cautiously trying to raise some restrictions while acknowledging there is more trouble on the horizon. Trump won’t even acknowledge a second wave and is suggesting people INJECT BLEACH.
I loved how he tried to cover his tracks and claim he as being sarcastic when making those comments. Like that makes it any better! An informative briefing about a pandemic is no place for sarcasm.
As some who once licked the top of a Comet container when I was 3, all I can say is DAMN PEOPLE!
LOL!
Comet… it gets your teeth real clean!
Comet… it makes your lips turn green.
Comet… it makes you vomit!
So get some Comet and vomit today!
We used to sing this when I was a kid. It goes to that “River Kwai” song with the whistling.
Glad you are OK, BlondieR!
Shocking. Absolutely shocking. Who would have ever imagined?
I don’t know who’s more stupid: the President lying and saying all of this horse shit to his believers or the ones who somehow believe it ?? What a low level… I’m baffled
The biggest eye opener for me since Trump was elected is all the truly stupid people in the U.S. I think many of his supporters love him because he speaks at their level of intelligence. I personally rage inside everytime he speaks to me as if I’m an imbecile, but his supporters love it.
It’s crazy! In France we have the opposite (and that’s also a reason why our President as so many opponents), he comes from a philosophical and intellectual background and used for years some Latin of Greek words in speeches that most of us would not understand. His speeches were “elevated” and made people feel stupid. At the opposite, Trump speaks with the most basic words so he can appeal to anyone….
I think I would rather have the elevated speech.
The sad thing is people like my father are happy with him as long as he continues to line his pockets.
You can’t even blame people. There are people who are not only scared but also just not very educated and/or intelligent. I don’t say that in a mean way, it’s just the way it is. He is, unfortunately, not just the President of the Trump supporters and those on the other side who know how to deal with his statements, but also to people who sincerely look to their government for information and guidance because they are not capable of doing extended Google searches and sifting through bs information. It’s like telling a room full of people to try and jump off the roof to see if they can fly. They probably won’t but there might be a child present who doesn’t know any better. This is just f*cking infuriating.
But can’t you blame people? Maybe those without access to the TV, or internet or those who can’t read & I wonder what that percentage is. But for most I suspect, it’s such effortless and easy access to so much information, what is truly their excuse except lack of motivation to spend any time at all educating themselves.
I’m sorry but I agree, you can blame people. Being illiterate is one thing but my guess is a majority of these people who are his cult followers are perfectly capable of reading a bleach container if they have one at home and understanding the warnings about ingestion. You can’t tell me that all of these people grew up not being taught or learning that ingesting cleaning supplies is NOT ok. If you are a child you get a pass but a grown literate adult does not. You can Tell me that these people only watch Fox News and like their dear leader are too lazy to do any sort of research themselves or try and learn anything new So they just take his word on everything like they have been from the beginning. He has consistently claimed to know more then experts in all areas and they believe him so that’s on them and their reasons are as crazy as he is because it has nothing to do with legitimate results and proof that he has more knowledge but the fact that they will follow him over a cliff because he is a reflection of them.
What Christin said below. Wow, way to be cruel. I don’t know what world you live in but there are people with lower IQs, mental disabilities, dementia etc. To dismiss that is just really condescending. From what I understand, there weren’t hundreds of thousands of cases or calls but the few there were (compared to the population of the US) might very have been people who belong in that category.
You can blame the people for their own willful ignorance when you know the bleach drinkers are the same ones who mocked the “stupid libs who did the Tide pod challenge.”
@emmy, sorry if that seems cruel but do you honestly believe that all of those calls and people who would believe him are all cognitively impaired? I can’t say that I do. Maybe I’m not being sensitive enough, maybe I’ve had enough of Trump, And lock down and I’m stressed and fed up and I’m taking it out on vulnerable people because his followers are the loudest. Sorry for the rant. Of course this man should know better but he doesn’t care and no one around him stops him so they are all complicit.
@Mel: I didn’t say that. But there are plenty of – as I said – people with lower intelligence and barely an education who maybe don’t understand this whole C19 situation and are scared. They don’t understand the craziness of this man and can’t judge properly how insane this whole statement was.
Do YOU believe that most of them are basically members of a cult? I know that’s a word that’s thrown around but really, it’s not the same thing. The vast majority can function in day-to-day life perfectly well. There’s a difference between political madness and drinking poison.
@emmy, I’m not going to go back and forth with you on this as I’ve already apologized and given my reasons why I might have gone off but that obviously wasn’t enough for you so I will answer your question and my answer is yes. Look up the definition of cult and I absolutely believe they are. My entire family is a part of it and it 100% has to do with religion for them. They think he was chosen by God. For the ones that aren’t religious they are part of his cult of personality.
@Mel: That wasn’t an apology and I don’t need one either. I just disagree, that’s all. Sorry if answering a post annoys you.
I thought about vulnerable people with genuine mental deficits who might believe it, especially when no one seemed to debunk it after he said it (during the actual briefing).
An example came to my mind. An elderly lady in my neighborhood who lived with her daughter called her health insurance provider about a billing question. The rep mockingly told her to “call 911”. Most of us would realize he was being an unprofessional jerk, or at least consult someone else. The elderly lady did as he said, and her daughter returned home to find a policeman at the house. Her mother took the suggestion literally, even if it made zero sense. It was simply a sign of dementia. Who knows how many people took the disinfectant idea literally?
It was those people who i thought of when i read what he said – those who have cognitive problems would have taken him at his word because he’s the President and therefore must be right as he is speaking on behalf of the gov.
I did some fast research on reading comprehension. With sources from the Department of Education, 52% of all Americans read at a “basic or below-basic” comprehension level. Which means they “cannot find places on a map, calculate the cost of office supplies from a catalog, or compare viewpoints in two editorials”. Even the 1/3 of Americans who have an “intermediate” level of reading proficiency are only at a sixth-to-eighth grade level. (For those outside the US, that would be a kid of 11-13 years old.)
So yes, it is WILDLY problematic for the President, presumably a person who is supposed to have more knowledge than the average Joe in emergency situations, to effectively tell a room of 13 year olds (and younger!!) to inject disinfectants.
Also, now I’m VERY sad about the state of our education. We have seriously failed. Egad.
They really should just set the cameras up not connected to anything and tell him he’s doing a press conference. Him on mute would be the healthiest thing for us all.
Networks don’t have to show his briefings. They do it for the ratings and circus value. If they had sense of respect for their viewers, they’d have cut him off weeks ago.
*Cut him off years ago.
In a substantial way, the media is part of the problem.
Lucy2 I think you’ve really hit on something there. Just like the spoof of Star Wars where they let Vader think he’s telepathically choking people: “why Smithers there has died twice this week!”
At this point I’m not shocked what comes out of that flaming azzhole. What struck me was the Doctor sitting there like a toddler in time-out. She must have mush for brains.
Her brains are fine. It’s her spine that’s lacking.
Dangerous mofo
Shiz like this is why humanity isn’t destined to last long enough to see the era of flying cars.
That in the year 2020, some bloated man baby was able to convince a sizeable number of people that drinking and/or injecting Lysol and bleach was even remotely a good way to proceed is beyond embarrassing. I guess points to them to have just enough awareness to check with poison control first. Of course, everyone who doubted their beloved fuhrer is now on social media telling us how stupid we all are for not realizing he was being “sarcastic”.
It’s too bad – morons like this were about to take themselves right out of the gene pool and they would have done it without potentially endangering other people and humanity would have been better off. The only ones I feel sorry for are the children currently being indoctrinated into this dangerous, hateful stupidity.
Reminds me of this movie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy#/media/File:Idiocracy_movie_poster.jpg
He really is a moron. It’s so bad that even Fox was pointing out that he said it in a very serious tone, nothing indicating sarcasm. He also was not looking at the press corp when he said it, he was clearly directing his voice to the medical people in the room. His press secretary also never claimed it as a joke, only that he was being “taken out of context.”
It really shows an incredible level of animosity and deep set biases that were planted in 2016 and have so deeply rooted as to be “to the death”, that Trump remains in power and still has defenders and supporters.
Once upon a time I assumed that even Trump could not or would not remain a buffoon during his entire term. So I had to lower my bar. Then he exceeded my worst expectations with so many evil and sadistic practices to make me weep at his inhumanity (refugees and immigrant policies come to mind).
Cut to today. It has always been clear to me that Trump is unqualified to be POTUS. On a good day. That he is running rampant across a country during a global pandemic, continuing to be incompetent yet completely transparently so, and NO ONE CAN STOP HIM, now has made me unable to anticipate my level of shock, that I once thought had dissipated when it came to his antics. But I think it is my disappointment in the Republican Party that is highest. He cannot be without competence in some form around him. And some form of humanity. How can they pretend he’s just a little bumbling? Needs a little editing? How can lives be sacrificed in the face of saving face!?
Please let accountability bury the Republican Party when the smoke has cleared. This is a very specific opportunity to not just come for Trump, but for the organization that allowed him to thrive and destroy, without impunity or consequence. Trump is the Trojan horse. The Republican Party are the deadly soldiers inside…
“Please let accountability bury the Republican Party when the smoke has cleared. This is a very specific opportunity to not just come for Trump, but for the organization that allowed him to thrive and destroy, without impunity or consequence. Trump is the Trojan horse. The Republican Party are the deadly soldiers inside…” Teebee as they say on this sight, once again for the people in the back! How can anyone ethically and morally vote Republican in the upcoming election? It is not possible, you would have to switch off your decency switch.
“so many evil and sadistic practices to make me weep at his inhumanity ” So, so many all over the world weep at his cruelty and wait with baited breath for a hero to step forward and end his madness.
He’s happy to kill people and capture news cycles with nonsense to keep reporters from talking 24/7 about that loan he owes the Chinese Communists and how he used tariffs and PPE shipments to negotiate. And media organizations complied, running ad nauseum Lysol ads and jabbering on about Trump being stupid. Oh, really? He’s so “stupid” that he controls the news cycles like a master propagandist. I wish viewers would wake up.
Media (cable news in particular) has become more entertainment than genuine reporting. The China loan and PPE stories should have been front and center, instead of talking for three days about the disinfectant/sarcasm topics.
He does play them like a fiddle, and has done so for four years.
Cable news has stories about the lack of PPE daily.
The PPE story I am thinking about are the recent allegations of seizing PPE from individual states who were trying to supply the frontlines. I may have missed it, but have seen very little 24/7 cable news cover this.
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/puppet-master/
This idiot should be named in any wrongful death suits, god forbid anyone dies.
They already have. His administration’s fantasy-land response to the pandemic has literally killed people that wouldn’t have died. Only Trump could succeed at mass murder without really thinking it through. Technically in this case, mass negligent homicide. I’m waiting to see if this comment gets blocked for being true.
Idiocracy. Our president has a gold toilet set into his dupioni silk, diamond-encrusted recliner affixed to a rotating dais surrounded by 45 floor-to-ceiling screens constantly streaming faux news, One America, The Kardashians, Apprentice reruns, John Wayne and cartoons.
Even the Terry Crews character President Comancho wasn’t as dumb in the movie Idiocracy as this actual idiot.
I’ve been thinking the main difference between Idiocracy and our real life today is that (for the most part) the people in the movie weren’t cruel or mean-spirited. They were just dumb. Now we have someone who is not only eye-wateringly stupid, but also actively malevolent.
Stopping covid entails daily radiation exposure, disinfectant injections and electrolytes. And you can get everything at Costco.
The Magats insist there are many disinfectants and he meant (sketchy) UV treatments. We just need sun, y’all. But that’s not injectable, and the UV treatments that use injections aren’t new… so they’ve already found a way to do it (as much as you can inject UV rays, which is you really can’t, but you can incorporate injections with UV rays)
But the Magats appreciate our President musing on science like a 5 yr old. And Dr. Brix defended such rambling. Shame on her.
When I called him out, one follower said,
“To me he is actually speaking like a human instead of reading or trying hard to remember what he is told.” Literally,his followers love him cause he’s just as dumb as them.
Your last sentence… Wow. I mean, do we really want a dumb person in the White House? I mean, there is one and look at the results… I can’t anymore
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109686/mediaviewer/rm1722947584
We lock this stuff up so our kids don’t drink it and die. This is Jonestown level of brainwashing.