Coronavirus: Trump claims disinfectant comments were 'sarcasm'

US deaths pass 50,000 as producers refute suggestion that cleaning products injected into the body could treat virus

US President Donald Trump on Friday walked back comments suggesting top health officials should study the injection of household disinfectants to cure coronavirus just as deaths from the pandemic in the country surpassed 50,000.

Speaking from the Oval Office, Mr Trump claimed he was being “sarcastic” a night earlier, when ruminating on the injection of dangerous substances to kill the virus in a human body. "I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” he said.

But there was little about his comments at Thursday’s daily press briefing to suggest sarcasm.

“I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute,” he said, with some of the country’s top medical officials in the wings. “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.”

Mr Trump’s comments were met with immediate criticism from health experts and rebuttals from the disinfectant producers themselves.

Reckitt Benckiser, the owner of household cleaning product companies Lysol and Dettol, said "under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body”.

US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi slammed Mr Trump’s comments as anti-science. “The President is asking people to inject Lysol into their lungs and (Republican Senate leader) Mitch (McConnell) is saying that states should go bankrupt. It’s a clear, visible sign, within 24 hours, of how the Republicans reject science and reject governance,” she said.

Firefighters wearing protective clothing spray disinfectant along a street as a preventive measure against the spread of the coronavirus in Yangon. AFP

An Egyptian doctor wearing two protective mask checks a patient's lung X-ray at the infectious diseases unit of the Imbaba hospital in the capital Cairo amid the coronavirus crisis. AFP

A specialist wearing protective gear sprays disinfectant while sanitising a playground to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Reuters

A Health worker tends to a patient inside a Covid-19 coronavirus ward that hosts suspected cases in Pikine Hospital in Dakar. As coronavirus cases slowly increase in Senegal, hospitals are preparing to test suspected cases whilst safely treating other patients. AFP

The TCL Chinese Theatre is reflected in the window of the closed variety store Minsio in Hollywood, California during the coronavirus pandemic. Movie theatres and the entertainment world in general is expected to experience massive losses because the pandemic. AFP

Aerial view as a film is projected on a giant screen at a park, so that quarantined people in their apartments watch a movie from home amid the coronavirus pandemic, in Bogota. Colombia extended mandatory preventive measures until at least May 11. AFP

Mexican Isaias Huerta, left, a former wrestler, and his wife Virginia, manufacture masks to contribute to the fight against Covid-19 in Puebla, Mexico. After arenas closed, a former wrestler makes face masks that resemble the typical masks worn by Mexican wrestlers. AFP

People celebrate with Turkish flags on their balconies to mark the National Sovereignty and Children's Day, in Istanbul, as the country is under lockdown to stop the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. AFP

A doctor takes a sample from man for a Covid-19 test during a government-imposed lockdown as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, in Amritsar. AFP

Board Certified Chaplain Bill Simpson prays with a patient under investigation for coronavirus at SSM Health St Anthony Hospital amid the spread of the coronavirus disease, in Shawnee, Oklahoma, US. Reuters

A worker wearing protective clothing sprays disinfectant towards a building in Via Cortina d’Ampezzo in Rome, as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues. Reuters

A passenger waits for their flight schedule at an almost empty departure lounge, at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Indonesia. The Indonesian government has banned commercial air travel from April 24 to June 1, in an effort to prevent people from returning to their hometowns to celebrate Eid al Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan. EPA

In another blow to the president’s own contribution to the country’s fight against the virus, the anti-malarial drugs he often touted as effective treatments were declared inappropriate by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which issued a warning over possible side-effects.

The drugs, hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, “can cause abnormal heart rhythms such as QT interval prolongation and a dangerously rapid heart rate called ventricular tachycardia,” the FDA said.

“We will continue to investigate risks associated with the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for Covid-19 and communicate publicly when we have more information,” the agency said.

The disinfectant controversy came as Mr Trump signed a nearly $500 billion (Dh1.8 trillion) coronavirus bill including funding for more hospitals and testing, as well as a business loan programme.

Confirmed cases in the US continued to soar on Friday, nearing 900,000, according to a Johns Hopkins University tracker.

In a solemn milestone in the country’s outbreak, deaths passed the 50,000 mark and are likely to rise still further.

Unemployment also continued to rise to levels not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s, with one in six American workers now out of a job because of the pandemic.