Trump's disinfectant idea isn't just 'utterly crazy,' it wouldn't harm the coronavirus, British doctor explains

(Image credit: Screenshot/Twitter/Good Morning Britain)

last updated 24 April 2020

If President Trump really watches hours of cable news every morning, as The New York Times reported Thursday, he is going to have a bad Friday morning.

John Berman, co-host of CNN's New Day, started off Friday's show by calling Trump's Thursday night comments about possibly injecting disinfectant into the lungs of COVID-19 patients "a heartbreaking work of staggering ignorance." What Trump is suggesting, he added, "will hurt you." New Day showed some of Trump's comments, and Alisyn Camerota read the statement from Lysol warning people against putting disinfectants inside their bodies. Dr. Carlos del Rio at Emory University explained why Trump's ideas, which also included radiating ultraviolet or "powerful" light inside the body, are nonsensical.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, appeared to think it was a bad idea in real time, too.

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Dr. Hilary Jones at Good Morning Britain explained cogently but bitingly why Trump's idea just wouldn't work.

"You know, I've heard some crazy things in my life, but this is probably one of the craziest," Jones said. "To use a disinfectant and inject it into the human body is not only toxic and highly poisonous but would do no good whatsoever. It would cause inflammation of human tissues, and not touch the virus at all, which actually lives in human cells, not on the surface of them. So he is completely and utterly crazy to suggest this." Sunlight also wouldn't affect the virus inside cells, he added. "It is true that the virus decays outside of the human body in ultraviolet light from the sun, but inside the body, of course, sunlight would do absolutely nothing, and how could you get sunshine into the human body?"

Luckily, Trump doesn't watch British morning shows. And maybe Fox & Friends was polite enough to discuss Joe Biden instead.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.