Please Don’t Encourage Death from Stupidity

The sad state of American education---Clorox should
replace tiny "if swallowed" instruction with
Warning! Poison! Do Not Drink! in front and back.

President Trump is used to tweeting and thinking out loud. While it's both refreshing and alarming to have such unfiltered access to a President's brain, extended unscripted discussions carry risks: [bold added]

During his coronavirus briefing Thursday night, Mr. Trump pondered whether treatments involving light or disinfectants should be studied.

“So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous—whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light—and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it,” he said. “And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body.”

Mr. Trump added: “And then I see the disinfectant, where it 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. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs.”

Dr. Deborah Birx, the administration’s coronavirus response coordinator, watched quietly with an impassive expression on her face as the president spoke. At one point, Mr. Trump asked her if she had heard that heat and light could work as a treatment for the virus. She replied: “Not as a treatment, no.”

The result is what one might expect of an opposition media--a continuous loop of the President appearing to say that the coronavirus could be treated by "injecting" disinfectants. To this humble blogger the President was voicing thoughts that flitted from the surface-cleaning capability of Clorox or Lysol to the desire for a miraculous substance that could similarly clean the lungs. His follow-up question to Dr. Birx indicated that the President was thinking about high temperature and ultraviolet treatments and not swallowing bleach.

If the media keeps repeating the misinterpretation that President Trump recommended disinfectants for internal use, then they're being deliberately obtuse. Worse, if Trump supporters are as ignorant and blindly obedient as the media thinks they are, some of them will act on the repeated false reports and drink poison.

Let's hope that no one is that stupid.