Two men in Georgia drank liquid cleaning products over the weekend in misguided attempts to prevent contracting COVID-19 after President D...
Two men in Georgia drank liquid cleaning products over the weekend in misguided attempts to prevent contracting COVID-19 after President Donald Trump floated the idea of ingesting disinfectant as a treatment for the virus.
Georgia Poison Center Director Gaylord Lopez said both men had histories of psychiatric problems and are expected to recover.
Lopez said he did not know if the men drank the chemicals because they heard Trump's statements during a White House briefing last week, where he wondered aloud if injecting disinfectant into the lungs could treat the virus.
In Kansas, state health officer Dr Lee Norman mentioned a similar case at a press briefing on Monday as he revealed that the Kansas Poison Control Center has seen a more than 40 percent increase in cleaning chemical cases.
Norman said that a man, who was not identified, 'drank a product because of the advice he'd received' but did not specify the source of the advice.
'We're doing what we can to counter-message against that kind of remedy,' he said.
Two men in Georgia and another man in Kansas drank cleaning products over the weekend after President Trump floated the idea of ingesting disinfectant as a treatment for coronavirus during a briefing last Thursday (pictured)
During a White House briefing last week, Trump mused about whether applying highly toxic disinfectant directly to the lungs could fight COVID-19 after mentioning that researchers were looking into the chemicals' effects on the virus.
'Is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?' he 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.'
The suggestion was quickly condemned by health experts who say drinking cleaning products such as bleach and Lysol is incredibly dangerous and potentially fatal.
'PLEASE always talk to your health provider first before administering any treatment/ medication to yourself or a loved one,' the US Surgeon General's office tweeted.
Trump and the White House have insisted that he was being 'sarcastic' when he made the cleaner comments, accusing the media of misrepresenting what he said.
He addressed the matter again at a briefing on Monday when asked by a reporter about 'Maryland and other states' where governors say they've seen a spike in people misusing disinfectant.
'I can't imagine why,' the president said. Probed about whether he takes responsibility, he followed up: 'No, I don't.'
Asked about Trump's comments last week, Lopez told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he felt too many people were misinterpreting the president, saying that he didn't actually recommend injecting disinfectants.
Georgia Poison Center Director Gaylord Lopez (left) said both men who drank cleaner in his state had histories of psychiatric problems and are expected to recover. In Kansas, state health officer Dr Lee Norman mentioned a similar case at a press briefing on Monday (right) as he revealed that the Kansas Poison Control Center has seen a more than 40 percent increase in cleaning chemical cases
Household cleaning brands Lysol and Clorox have urged the public not to ingest their products
On Friday, the Maryland Emergency Management Agency put out a warning telling residents 'that under no circumstances should any disinfectant product be administered into the body through injection, ingestion or any other route'
However, critics say the increase in cleaning chemical cases shows the immense influence Trump's words have on Americans' actions.
This isn't the first time the president has been accused of driving people to make dangerous decisions to confront coronavirus.
Last month, an Arizona couple in their 60s were hospitalized after they drank fish tank cleaner thinking it was the drug championed by Trump as a miracle cure for the virus.
Gary Lenius died and his wife Wanda was left in critical condition after they took chloroquine phosphate, confusing it with hydroxychloroquine.
'We were afraid we were getting sick. We were getting really worried,' Wanda later told NBC.
'We saw his [Trump's] press conference. It was on a lot, actually. Trump kept saying it was pretty much a cure.'
Gary Lenius died and his wife Wanda (pictured together) was left in critical condition after they drank fish tank cleaner thinking it was the drug championed by Trump as a miracle cure for coronavirus
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