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Makers of Clorox and Lysol Warn Against Ingesting Bleach and Disinfectants Trump’s Suggestion That Disinfectants Could Be Used to Treat Coronavirus Prompts Aggressive Pushback
(about 5 hours later)
Health officials, the makers of cleaning products, doctors and federal lawmakers repeated dire warnings on Friday about the dangers of ingesting disinfectants, responding to remarks by President Trump the night before about the possible medical effects of sunlight, ultraviolet light and household disinfectants on the coronavirus. WASHINGTON — In Maryland, so many callers flooded a health hotline with questions that the state’s Emergency Management Agency had to issue a warning that “under no circumstances” should any disinfectant be taken to treat the coronavirus. In Washington State, officials urged people not to consume laundry detergent capsules. Across the country on Friday, health professionals sounded the alarm.
The warnings were uniform: The cleaning products are extremely dangerous to ingest — potentially deadly — and no one should do so. Injecting bleach or highly concentrated rubbing alcohol “causes massive organ damage and the blood cells in the body to basically burst,” Dr. Diane P. Calello, the medical director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System, said in an interview. “It can definitely be a fatal event.”
Reckitt Benckiser, the British company that makes Lysol and Dettol, said on Friday it was warning customers against using disinfectants as treatment because it had been asked about their “internal administration” after “recent speculation and social media activity.” Even the makers of Clorox and Lysol pleaded with Americans not to inject or ingest their products.
“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),” it said in a statement. The frantic reaction was prompted by President Trump’s suggestion on Thursday at a White House briefing that an “injection inside” the human body with a disinfectant like bleach or isopropyl alcohol could help combat the virus.
The Clorox Company said on Friday that disinfecting surfaces with bleach was one way to help slow the spread of Covid-19, citing recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But it added: “Bleach and other disinfectants are not suitable for consumption or injection under any circumstances.” “And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute,” Mr. Trump said after a presentation from William N. Bryan, an acting under secretary for science at the Department of Homeland Security, detailed the virus’s possible susceptibility to bleach and alcohol.
Accidents with household cleaning products appear to have sharply increased in recent weeks, according to doctors who monitor activity at poison call centers. On Monday, the C.D.C. reported an alarming trend of growing calls to poison control centers, and a significant increase in accidental exposures to household cleaners and disinfectants. “One minute,” the president said. “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. So it would be interesting to check that.”
Ingesting bleach or disinfectant chemicals is very dangerous, said Dr. Diane P. Calello, the medical director of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System. “When people injected bleach or highly concentrated rubbing alcohol it causes massive organ damage and the blood cells in the body to basically burst,” she said. “It can definitely be a fatal event.” Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, was sitting to the side in the White House briefing room, blinking hard and looking at the floor as he spoke. Later, Mr. Trump asked her if she knew about “the heat and the light” as a potential cure.
But although companies and doctors have warned about such chemicals for years, officials around the country on Friday were fielding calls and questions about disinfectants and Covid-19. By the afternoon, Maryland’s hotline had received more than 100 calls on the subject, Mike Ricci, the spokesman for Gov. Larry Hogan, said on Twitter. “Not as a treatment,” Dr. Birx said, adding, “I haven’t seen heat or light” — before the president cut her off.
The calls prompted a response from the Maryland Emergency Management Agency: “Under no circumstances should any disinfectant product be administered into the body through injection, ingestion or any other route.” Mr. Trump’s remarks caused an immediate uproar, and the White House spent much of Friday trying to walk them back. Also Friday, the Food and Drug Administration warned that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, two drugs that the president has repeatedly recommended in treating the coronavirus, can cause dangerous abnormalities in heart rhythm in coronavirus patients and has resulted in some deaths.
Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania’s health secretary, was even more emphatic, saying that, as a pediatrician, she had seen children with “very, very severe burns of their esophagus, requiring intensive care and operations,” after ingesting cleaning materials. The F.D.A. said the drugs should be used only in clinical trials or hospitals where patients can be closely monitored for heart problems.
“I can tell you from my clinical experience that it is an extremely dangerous thing to do, and I can’t offer my highest recommendation not to do that,” she said at a news conference. “Leave it to the media to irresponsibly take President Trump out of context and run with negative headlines,” Kayleigh McEnany, the new White House press secretary, said in a statement criticizing the coverage of Thursday night’s briefing.
And in Washington State, officials urged people not to consume laundry detergent capsules or “inject yourself with any kind of disinfectant.” But the president later undermined her argument by insisting that his question to Mr. Bryan in fact had been an elaborate prank he had engineered to trick reporters.
“Just don’t make a bad situation worse,” the state’s emergency management agency said. “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” Mr. Trump said on Friday to reporters gathered in the Oval Office. The president said he had posed his theory on cleaning the body with disinfectant “in the form of a sarcastic question to a reporter,” which also was not true — he had said it unprompted to Mr. Bryan.
Mr. Trump speculated about the possible medical application of disinfectants at the White House briefing on Thursday. William N. Bryan, the head of science at the Department of Homeland Security, told reporters that the government had tested how sunlight and disinfectants — including bleach and alcohol — can kill the coronavirus on surfaces. With more questions likely at the Friday briefing, Vice President Mike Pence, the head of the White House coronavirus task force, abruptly ended it shortly after it began.
Mr. Trump then spoke about disinfectants. Several White House officials said they shared the view that Mr. Trump had been taken out of context, even as they acknowledged that his comments were problematic. They noted that the president had later directed the same comments to Dr. Birx, and suggested them as a course of study, as opposed to a recommendation of a course of action for the American public.
“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?” Mr. Trump asked. “Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.” But they acknowledged that Mr. Trump’s delivery was too sloppy for a president who is in the middle of managing the response to a pandemic that has killed over 50,000 Americans. Some said it was one of the worst days in one of the worst weeks of his presidency.
On Friday morning, the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, said that Mr. Trump’s comments were taken out of context by the news media. Others inside the administration raised questions about why Mr. Bryan, whose background is not in health or science, had been invited to deliver a presentation. Mr. Bryan, whose expertise is in energy infrastructure and security, is serving in an acting capacity as the head of the department’s science and technology directorate.
“President Trump has repeatedly said that Americans should consult with medical doctors regarding coronavirus treatment, a point that he emphasized again during yesterday’s briefing,” she said. Mr. Bryan served 17 years in the Army, followed by yearslong stints as a civil servant at the Defense and Energy Departments. The latter role led to a whistle-blower complaint accusing him, in part, of manipulating government policy to further his personal financial interests, and then lying to Congress about those interests.
On Friday afternoon, Mr. Trump tried to suggest that he had been kidding with his musings the day before. “I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” he told journalists in the Oval Office as he signed the latest coronavirus relief bill into law. The United States Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency that investigates whistle-blower complaints, asked the Energy Department last year to investigate the accusations against Mr. Bryan. In January, the Senate returned his nomination to the White House.
Dr. Calello, one of the authors of the C.D.C. report, said on Friday that there was no evidence to suggest that any of these disinfectant chemicals, tested on nonporous surfaces like countertops, can work inside the body to kill the new coronavirus or any other virus. Mr. Bryan was invited by the vice president’s office to the coronavirus task force meetings on Wednesday and Thursday about a study that his department had done relating to heat and the conditions in which the coronavirus can thrive or be dampened. On Thursday, Mr. Bryan presented a graphic to the room, according to four people briefed on the events.
The chemicals do cause severe damage inside the human body, she said. Mr. Pence’s advisers wanted Mr. Bryan to brief the news media on his findings, but several West Wing staff members objected, partly because they were concerned the information had not been verified.
“There are reports, tragically, of people who either in a misinformed attempt to clean their blood, or an attempt to harm themselves, inject themselves with chemicals,” said Dr. Calello, who works regular shifts at the New Jersey poison hotline. Before Mr. Bryan took the lectern, Dr. Birx and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, a member of the coronavirus task force, made a few revisions to his presentation, officials said.
There are no products, vaccines or drugs approved to treat or cure the coronavirus. Federal and local officials have previously spoken out against medical misinformation, particularly when it appears online or when untested products are advertised as cures for Covid-19 or other viruses and severe illnesses. As he listened to Mr. Bryan, the president became increasingly excited, and also felt the need to demonstrate his own understanding of science, according to three of the advisers. So Mr. Trump went ahead with his theories about the chemicals.
The Trump administration in March warned against selling products that claim to cure or prevent the coronavirus, including teas, essential oils, tinctures and colloidal silvers. Later in the briefing, Phil Rucker, a reporter for The Washington Post, asked the president why he had that discussion, since “people tuning into these briefings, they want to get information and guidance and want to know what to do — they’re not looking for a rumor.”
But at White House briefings, Mr. Trump has issued medical advice for fighting the virus that goes well beyond scientific evidence, including about warmer temperatures and the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine. Doctors have warned that misinformation around home remedies could prove disastrous, as when an Arizona man died after he ingested a popular fish tank additive that has the same active ingredient as an anti-malaria drug. ”Hey, Phil,” he responded. “I’m the president, and you’re fake news.”
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration warned against using hydroxychloroquine and another drug, chloroquine, saying that they could cause dangerous abnormalities in the heart rhythms of coronavirus patients. The agency said the drugs should be used only in clinical trials or hospitals, where patients can be closely monitored. The backlash was swift. A host of corporations, doctors and government officials had all stepped forward quickly issue a uniform warning: Cleaning products are extremely dangerous to ingest — potentially deadly — and no one should do so.
Several Democratic lawmakers alluded to the president’s remarks on Friday. Speaker Nancy Pelosi ridiculed Mr. Trump’s comment as she criticized his priorities for coronavirus relief. Speaker Nancy Pelosi ridiculed Mr. Trump’s comments as she criticized his priorities for coronavirus relief. “The president is asking people to inject Lysol into their lungs,” she said, calling it an indication that “Republicans reject science.”
“The president is asking people to inject Lysol into their lungs,” she said, calling it an indication that “Republicans reject science.” And Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic presidential front-runner, added his own criticism.
Another Democratic lawmaker, Senator Bob Casey, said in a message to constituents, “Pennsylvanians, I never thought I’d need to say this, but just to be clear: Please do not drink or inject bleach.” “I can’t believe I have to say this,” Mr. Biden posted on Twitter on Friday afternoon, “but please don’t drink bleach.”
At the briefing on Thursday, Mr. Trump also asked officials about testing the effects of light on the virus. “Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light,” Mr. Trump said. Dr. Jerome M. Adams, the surgeon general, also issued a warning through his Twitter feed — the closest he has come so far to walking back the words of the president.
“And I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but we’re going to test it?” he added, turning to Mr. Bryan, the Department of Homeland Security official. “And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, either through the skin or some other way.” “A reminder to all Americans- PLEASE always talk to your health provider first before administering any treatment/ medication to yourself or a loved one,” Dr. Adams said. “Your safety is paramount, and doctors and nurses are have years of training to recommend what’s safe and effective.”
Ultraviolet lamps can harm humans if used improperly, experts warn. When Mr. Trump asked Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, whether she had heard of the success of sunlight as an effective tool against viruses, and more specifically the coronavirus, she replied, “Not as a treatment.” Mr. Trump’s hopeful comments about disinfectant use coincided with an alarming rise in accidents with household cleaning products in recent weeks, according to doctors who monitor activity at poison call centers. On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a growing number of calls to poison control centers, and a significant increase in accidental exposures to household cleaners and disinfectants.
For months, social media companies have sought to elevate responsible information about the virus and its spread, while also struggling to address the spread of misinformation, including junk science and supposed cures. The F.D.A. has moved to tamp down on merchants online that have encouraged the ingestion of products made with disinfectants and cleaning agents, including chlorine dioxide, a compound commonly used as a bleach. The products have found favor with conspiracy theorists and fringe activists online who peddle chlorine dioxide as “Magical Mineral Solution,” or M.M.S.
One such activist, Mark Grenon, claimed after the president’s briefing that “Trump has got the M.M.S. and all the info,” according to The Guardian. Mr. Grenon did not reply to an email seeking comment, nor did the White House. On Friday, a person familiar with the situation said senior administration officials were not familiar with Mr. Grenon or his letter.
Social media platforms have also moved to filter out the circulation of junk science and bad information online, using disinfectants as a prime example. Last month, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, specifically mentioned a bleach “cure” as an example of “misinformation that has imminent risk of danger.”
“Things like, ‘You can cure this by drinking bleach,’” he said. “I mean, that’s just in a different class.”
A spokesman for Twitter said on Friday that the president’s statements “do not violate our Covid-19 misinformation policy.”A spokesman for Twitter said on Friday that the president’s statements “do not violate our Covid-19 misinformation policy.”
Last month, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, specifically mentioned a bleach “cure” as an example of “misinformation that has imminent risk of danger.” Katie Rogers reported from Washington, and Christine Hauser, Alan Yuhas and Maggie Haberman from New York. Kenneth P. Vogel contributed reporting from Washington, and Davey Alba from New York.
“Things like, ‘you can cure this by drinking bleach,’” he said. “I mean, that’s just in a different class.”
Davey Alba contributed reporting.