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During Thursday's White House coronavirus task force briefing, an official presented the results of US government research that indicated coronavirus appeared to weaken more quickly when exposed to sunlight and heat.
The study also showed bleach could kill the virus in saliva or respiratory fluids within five minutes and isopropyl alcohol could kill it even more quickly.
William Bryan, acting head of the US Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, outlined the findings at the news conference.
Trump was supportive of this research. Indeed, Trump had spoken about heat and light possibly killing off the virus before, and he was clearly a proponant of this idea. He spoke about how their research into heat and light killing the virus should be interesting and then stated:
"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?"
Some have argued that Trump was essentially encouraging a very dangerous idea for a cure: injecting oneself with disinfectant or bleach, or otherwise consuming some kind of disinfectant - as the presentation discussed the ability of these to kill the virus and then Trmp talked about internal use.
A few moments later, ABC News reporter Jon Karl asked Bryan, “The president mentioned the idea of a cleaner, bleach and isopropyl alcohol emerging. There’s no scenario where that could be injected into a person, is there?”
“No, I’m here to talk about the finds that we had in the study,” Bryan responded. “We don’t do that within that lab at our labs.”
Trump then clarified his remarks: “It wouldn’t be through injections, you’re talking about almost a cleaning and sterilization of an area. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t work, but it certainly has a big affect if it’s on a stationary object.”
So, Trump disowned these ideas once the Q and A began, it seems. Does this mean he has no responsibility for raising this idea? Could he still have done damage, or has he been unfairly maligned for asking a qustion?
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