While many of President Trump’s press conferences serve as source material for American late night show hosts’ jokes and opening monologues, his White House address on Thursday had medical experts across the country reeling.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the US President suggested the possibility of an "injection" of disinfectant into a person suffering from the novel coronavirus as a deterrent to the disease.
His bizarre suggestion came after another expert present at the press conference discussed the effects of sunlight and household disinfectants on the virus.
Bill Bryan, who leads the Department of Homeland Security's science and technology division, gave a presentation on research his team has done which shows that warmer temperatures and humidity cuts the life of the coronavirus down by half, with Bryan saying that the virus “dies quickest in sunlight".
However, what followed left many scratching their heads as President Trump then stepped up to the microphone and wondered whether people could bring the light "inside the body” and suggested that experts should find a way to inject light and disinfectants into human bodies to kill the virus.
"So supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it's ultraviolet or just a very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn't been checked because of the testing and then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you're going to test that, too," Trump said, speaking to Bryan during the press conference.
"I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? As you see, it gets in the lungs, it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that," he added.
Upon being asked whether it was dangerous to make people think they would be safe going outside in the heat, Trump replied, “I hope people enjoy the sun. And if it has an impact, that’s great… It’s just a suggestion from a brilliant lab by a very, very smart, perhaps brilliant man.”
“I’m here to present ideas, because we want ideas to get rid of this thing. And if heat is good, and if sunlight is good, that’s a great thing as far as I’m concerned,” the president went on to say.
Following the press conference, medical experts across the country scrambled to denounce these suggestions, urging people not to attempt to swallow disinfectant or bleach to try and kill the virus.
Experts also expressed doubts about the heat theory especially since many warm countries have witnessed a COVID-19 outbreak.