30 New Yorkers Ingest Household Cleaners After Prez Donald Trump's 'Sarcasm' On Killing Corona

After US president Donald Trump's bogus claim that injecting such products could cure coronavirus, an unusually high number of New Yorkers contacted city health authorities over fears that they had ingested bleach or other household cleaners.

According to Daily News, "the Poison Control Center, a subagency of the city¡¯s Health Department, managed a total of 30 cases of possible exposure to disinfectants between 9 pm Thursday and 3 pm Friday."

The report added that none of the people who reached out died or required hospitalisation.

During Thursday night's briefing at the White House, Trump suggested doctors may be able to cure coronavirus by injecting disinfectants like bleach directly into the lungs of their patients.

AFP

¡°I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute,¡± Trump said during Thursday¡¯s coronavirus press briefing. ¡°And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets inside the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.¡±After his comments snowballed into a massive controversy and brands had to issue a warning to people to not inject themselves with disinfectants, Trump claimed his dangerous suggestion was a joke.

When asked Friday during a bill signing in the Oval Office to expand upon this, Trump said it was not intended as a serious suggestion.

¡°I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,¡± Trump said.

Back in 2017, Donald Trump pointed to the sun when he arrived to view the solar eclipse at the White House in Washington./AP

Back in 2017, Donald Trump pointed to the sun when he arrived to view the solar eclipse at the White House in Washington.

Trump's comment about injecting disinfectant to fight coronavirus is just the latest in a long list of comments and actions that run contrary to mainstream science. He's gone against scientific and medical advice by staring at an eclipse without protection, calling climate change a hoax and saying wind turbines cause cancer.