Professor Jenny Harries has warned the public over the importance of using appropriate treatments against coronavirus after a clip of President Donald Trump was widely circulated overnight.
Mr Trump, in Thursday’s White House task force briefing, suggested there should be further research into whether disinfectant could be injected into the body after he was presented with results of a US government study that showed bleach could kill the virus in saliva or respiratory fluids within five minutes.
In the UK’s government press briefing on Friday, Prof Jenny was quizzed by a journalist on whether she has a message to the President about the dangers of spreading disinformation.
The deputy chief medical officer enforced that only evidence-based treatments that we know are safe should be used.
Speaking from Downing Street, she said: “I wouldn’t have a specific message to Donald Trump, I’d have a specific message to anybody who suggested they should be injecting anything into their bodies.
“I mean, clearly we would not support, from a medical professional perspective, it is really important that people use appropriate treatments that are evidence based and tested.
“We have very good programmes that have been taken up very rapidly, co-ordinated in this country testing various different alternative treatments.
“Those trials will report reasonably early, but certainly nobody should be injecting anything and we should be using evidence-based and properly trialled treatments that we know will be safe.”
In the clip concerned, Mr Trump says: “...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?
"So it'd be interesting to check that."
He added: "I'm not a doctor. But I'm, like, a person that has a good you-know-what."
The medical community has since lambasted the President, and two major disinfectant brands have been forced to issue warnings to shoppers after Zoflora and Dettol both began trending on Twitter.
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