US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has come under fire from the medical community after he suggested injecting disinfectant into the body could be used as a way to treat coronavirus.
The president was speaking at a daily press briefing when he made the comments, following a US official outlinting a study which showed that the virus weakens more quickly when exposed to sunlight and heat, and that it is killed within five minutes when the virus, present in saliva or respiratory fluids, is exposed to bleach.
Bleach and disinfectant wipes are used to kill the virus on surfaces in the home, but is extremely dangerous when exposed to the skin, eyes and respiratory system, as is labelled on every bottle of bleach.
Following William Bryan, acting head of the US Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, outlining the findings of the study, Mr Trump first acknowledged that the research should be treated with caution, but then suggested that patients be hit with "a tremendous - whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light".
It would be "interesting to check" if coronavirus can be treated by injecting disinfectant into the body, US President Donald Trump has said. (Getty)"And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside of the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way," he added, saying that he believes his scientists on the team would be testing this method.
"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?" he said, adding "it would be interesting to check that."
Mr Trump went on to say he was not a doctor, but "a person that has a good you-know-what".
Mr Trump's comments has drawn anger and exasperation from the US medical community, with pulmonologist John Balmes telling Bloomberg News it was a "ridiculous concept".
"Inhaling chlorine bleach would be absolutely the worst thing for the lungs. The airway and lungs are not made to be exposed to even an aerosol of disinfectant.
"Not even a low dilution of bleach or isopropyl alcohol is safe."
The new comments come after Mr Trump spent several weeks touting the drug hydrocoxychloroquine as a possible coronavirus treatment. BBC News reports that a new study of Covid-19 patients in a hospital for military veterans found that patients died more frequently when treated with the drug than those receiving standard care.
