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Comment by hyko | Hacker News Reader

Easily the worst U.S. president in history. I mean, say what you like about James Buchanan but I’m pretty certain he never suggested anyone INJECT THEMSELVES WITH DISINFECTANT!

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I dont think he suggested people inject themselves with disinfectant. That summary is what allows people to say that headlines are blown out of proportion and allows glossing over the real and only slightly more nuanced issue.

The man showcased profound misunderstanding, but he didn't prescribe lysol injections.

He absolutely is on record suggesting that injecting disinfectant would be a promising area of research, no summary required:

“I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute! And is there a way we can do something by an injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs... so it’d be interesting to check that.”

How are you going to check that injecting disinfectant into people won’t work against COVID-19 without injecting disinfectant into people?

He didn’t prescribe Lysol injections because he’s not a medical doctor and therefore not allowed to prescribe anything to anyone.

Though the trials of lysol injections would not start in humans, they also would not start in mice, or in yeast, or at all. It is absurd to suggest anyone look into injecting any surface disinfectants into a living creature, let alone a human, let alone during a pandemic, let alone at the White House podium on a day the US had a 9/11's worth of deaths due to the virus in a single 24-hour time period.

Obviously, you use the Lysol like an inhaler. No need to inject. Just get Lysol to make those little asthma puffers, but in fresh rain scent. /s

It does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.

Almost the entire briefing was about UV light killing viruses. Ultraviolet light is classified as a non-chemical disinfectant, and Trump was asking if we can bring it into the body. In his comment he said "The whole concept of the light that kills under one minute, thats pretty powerful".

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