Man who peddles bleach as 'miracle cure' reportedly contacted Trump ahead of his bizarre disinfectant comments

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President Trump was allegedly the recipient of a letter from a man who peddles bleach as being a "miracle cure" in the days leading up to his controversial musings about using disinfectants to fight COVID-19, The Guardian has learned.

Mark Grenon, who is described by ABC News as being one of "the high priests of snake oil," had reportedly written to the White House with the claim that chlorine dioxide, an industrial bleach, can "kill 99 percent of the pathogens in the body." On Facebook, Grenon celebrated Trump's discussion of disinfectants as being a possible cure, writing, "Trump has got the MMS and all the info!!! Things are happening folks! Lord help others to see the Truth!"

Grenon calls himself the "archbishop" of the Genesis II church in Florida and produces and distributes the "miracle mineral solution," or "MMS." He's pitched it as a fraudulent cure for all sorts of diseases and conditions, including cancer, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and autism, The Guardian reports. While MMS has "a growing fanbase, often among people skeptical of modern medicine or desperate for miracle cures," according to a 2019 report by The Daily Beast, the FDA has stressed that "the solution, when mixed, develops into a dangerous bleach which has caused serious and potentially life-threatening side effects." Doug Nash, the former mayor of San Juan Capistrano, California, has even claimed that MMS was responsible for the death of his wife.

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Just last week, the FDA barred Genesis II from selling MMS, calling it "an unproven and potentially harmful treatment for COVID-19." Trump has since said that his interest in using disinfectant to combat the coronavirus was sarcastic.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.