COVID-19: UpdateTrump Adds Confusion on COVID-19 Treatments as U.S. Deaths Top 50,000
Direct sunlight, injected disinfectants, heat. Those were some of the remedies for coronavirus infection President Donald Trump mentioned during yesterday’s White House task force briefing. Today the manufacturers of Lysol and Dettol cleaners, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the CDC, issued statements and warnings contradicting Trump’s remarks. They warned consumers against ingesting any disinfectants, and urged them to follow the warning labels on disinfectants containers. The FDA on Friday has issued a strong statement urging doctors and patients not to use hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat COVID-19 patients outside of controlled medical trials. The warning came after the largest retrospective test of the two compounds has proven ineffective in treating the disease relative to a placebo, while having serious side effects, including death, in some cases. The U.S. has so far recorded 884,004 cases and 50,360 deaths.
Direct sunlight, injected disinfectants, heat. Those were some of the remedies for coronavirus infection President Donald Trump mentioned during yesterday’s White House task force briefing. Yesterday the manufacturers of Lysol and Dettol cleaners, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), issued statements and warnings contradicting Trump’s remarks.
“As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),” said RB, the maker of Lysol and Dettol, in a statement. “As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information.”
At the press briefing, William Bryan, acting head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, presented new preliminary research that shows the coronavirus dies quickly in direct sunlight. The research was conducted on the strength of the COVID-19 virus on non-porous surfaces, and showed direct, high heat reduced the virus’ half-life within 2 minutes, compared with18 hours in a dark, low-humidity environment. The study was not conducted on humans.
For months experts have gone back and forth as to whether the COVID-19 virus will act like seasonal influenza, which sees transmission rates slow during warm summer months.
The study also showed isopropyl alcohol was more effective than bleach in killing the virus, which prompted Trump to ask, “Is there a way we can do something like that by injection, inside, or almost a cleaning? It would be interesting to check that.”
Yesterday the president said his remarks were sarcastic. According to The Hill, Trump said the question was meant to toy with reporters.
“I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
U.S. Reaches 50,000 Fatalities
Only 10 days after hitting 25,000 deaths due to COVID-19, the U.S. reached another milestone yesterday: 50,000 deaths from the novel coronavirus. New York state accounts for more than 40 percent of the deaths, followed by New Jersey, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Illinois.
So far the U.S. has recorded 884,004 cases and 50,360 deaths, according to the tracker maintained by USA Today.
