Disinfectant makers steer consumers away from Trump's coronavirus comments

By Martinne Geller and Jonathan Stempel

 

FILE PHOTO: Products produced by Reckitt Benckiser; Vanish, Finish, Dettol and Harpic, are seen in London, Britain February 12, 2008. REUTERS/Stephen Hird/File Photo

 

(Reuters) - Makers of household cleaners on Friday took the unusual step of urging people not to drink or inject their products, after U.S. President Donald Trump suggested researchers try using them to cure COVID-19 patients.

 

Reckitt Benckiser <RB.L>, the UK-based maker of Lysol and Dettol, issued the first warning, saying: "Under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route)."

 

Clorox <CLX.N>, maker of bleach, soon followed, calling it critical for consumers to understand the facts.

 

"Bleach and other disinfectants are not suitable for consumption or injection under any circumstances," it said.

 

The comments came after Trump said at a Thursday news briefing that scientists should explore whether inserting ultraviolet light or disinfectant into the bodies of people infected with the disease caused by the novel coronavirus would help.

 

"Is there a way we can do something like that by injection, inside, or almost a cleaning?" he said. "It would be interesting to check that."

 

Trump later said he was being sarcastic, after his comments sparked swift and fierce rebuke from the international medical community and others concerned that people might poison themselves by ingesting products with harmful chemicals.

 

"We have a responsibility as a company to make sure people are using our products as intended and are following the guidance on the label and not unintentionally misusing them because of different suggestions," a Reckitt spokeswoman told Reuters. "We wanted to make sure nobody misinterpreted his comments."

 

SPEAKING UP

 

Lou Colasuonno, who specializes in crisis communications, said speaking up was the right thing to do, even if it risked White House retribution for contradicting the president.

 

"If they'd been quiet during this, it could be construed as acquiescence," said Colasuonno, a senior managing director at FTI Consulting. He said the risk of White House pushback was low, given the reaction to Trump's comments.

 

Lysol toilet bowl cleaner's warning states: "CORROSIVE. Causes irreversible eye damage and skin burns. Harmful if swallowed. Do not get in eyes, on skin or on clothing."

 

Meanwhile, Procter & Gamble <PG.N>, maker of Comet cleaner and Dawn detergent, referred to a statement from the American Cleaning Institute that "disinfectants are meant to kill germs or viruses on hard surfaces. Under no circumstances should they ever be used on one's skin, ingested or injected internally."

 

Since March, U.S. poison control centers have reported a spike in calls concerning bleaches and hand sanitizers, as Americans stay home and clean intensely.

 

"PRESIDENT-PROOFING YOUR PRODUCT"

 

William Marler, a food safety lawyer in Seattle, said manufacturers could face legal liability if consumers who did not know better misused their products, likening the companies' statements to "president-proofing your product".

 

"The law would presume that a reasonable person wouldn't be consuming a product, despite what the president said," Marler said.

 

He said companies would face a "much different situation" if their products were ingested by children, or people with a mental illness that predisposed them to doing that.

 

Frank Vandall, a professor at Emory University School of Law in Atlanta, said the argument that people know better was weakened by Trump's comments.

 

"There are many people who could say that if the president says it, poof, that's good enough for me," he said. "The messenger is enormously important."

 

Mark Geistfeld, a New York University law professor specializing in product liability, said a plaintiff must prove a manufacturer failed to adequately disclose the risks, which it could accomplish with a "do not ingest" warning on the label.

 

"The issue depends on whether there is already a warning on these products stating that the disinfectant should not be ingested," he said in an email. "An adequate warning does not have to say, 'Do not ingest, even if recommended by the President.'"

 

(Additional reporting by Siddharth Cavale, Tanishaa Nadkar and Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty Aand Tom Brown)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-25

 

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i mean there's drinking the kool-aid and then there's drinking the KOOL-AID

Here is the comment, you judge if he was being sarcastic. 

Even if he was being sarcastic, which he clearly was not, should the president be engaged in such sarcasm on live TV in the course of a pandemic? what if someone takes him serious. 

  And even if he was stupid enough to think injecting disinfectant was even an option to consider, should he not have run it by his experts before he started brainstorming on live TV?

Incredible!! simply incredible.

The man is a dangerous imbecile and need to be removed or isolated.  

 

Dangerous dangerous man. It would be funny if there wasn't a pandemic.

Just when Trump couldn't sink any lower he opens his mouth yet again with asinine stupid reckless comments/advice. He really is a sociopath, doesn't care about anything but feeding his ego with lies and hypocrisy like a school child bully. MUST get rid of him asap!  

45 minutes ago, sirineou said:

Even if he was being sarcastic, which he clearly was not

 

 

 

It was not sarcasm...

 

The leader of the most prominent group in the US peddling potentially lethal industrial bleach as a “miracle cure” for coronavirus wrote to Donald Trump at the White House this week.

In his letter, Mark Grenon told Trump that chlorine dioxide – a powerful bleach used in industrial processes such as textile manufacturing that can have fatal side-effects when drunk – is “a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body”. He added that it “can rid the body of Covid-19”.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/24/revealed-leader-group-peddling-bleach-cure-lobbied-trump-coronavirus

 

 

 

 

 

47 minutes ago, sirineou said:

Even if he was being sarcastic, which he clearly was not, should the president be engaged in such sarcasm on live TV in the course of a pandemic? what if someone takes him serious.

Hehe! No of course he shouldn´t be sarcastic and come up with deluded comments or put crazy ideas in peoples minds. Unfortunately that´s the only way he knows how to express himself. I really sad story, that would take far too long time to examine here.

What is more amazing as well as very sad in this case. That is if somebody actually, as you post, would take him serious. God forbid, that it is still people out there that actually walks around with the possibility to do that.

2 minutes ago, dimitriv said:

 

It was not sarcasm...

 

The leader of the most prominent group in the US peddling potentially lethal industrial bleach as a “miracle cure” for coronavirus wrote to Donald Trump at the White House this week.

In his letter, Mark Grenon told Trump that chlorine dioxide – a powerful bleach used in industrial processes such as textile manufacturing that can have fatal side-effects when drunk – is “a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body”. He added that it “can rid the body of Covid-19”.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/24/revealed-leader-group-peddling-bleach-cure-lobbied-trump-coronavirus

 

 

 

 

 

It would be a great cure if it was not for some minor side effects such as.

Death followed by  Morbidity , Decomposition and unpleasant odor. 

Now we're being told by the WH that he was being "sarcastic". 

 

Sarcasm during a crisis, always a good thing.

 

Amb. Birx's reaction during the presser....

 

"Oh my goodness, my soul is gone forever."

 

"Rex Tillerson was right, this guy is a ******* moron."

 

"Can I hang myself with this scarf?"

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d57zJr82dhQ

 

 

 

 

Mr. President Shut UP 

A post containing hateful comments has been reported and removed which resulted in posts containing offensive comments from both sides of the political divide being removed. 

10 minutes ago, Kelsall said:

LOL Now the haters are concerned about the well-being of Trump supporters.

Just last week they were hoping they got the virus!

Rite back to the old safe spot all bs aside as potus you need to think before you open your yap that was a stupid thing to say some people may die because of it I personally want a higher caliber individual as potus not some idiot with no impulse control yapping about the first thing that enters his head definitely unsuited for the job as potus 

It's generally a good time for sanitising products manufacturers.  Let them beat their drum.  

2 minutes ago, Tug said:

Rite back to the old safe spot all bs aside as potus you need to think before you open your yap that was a stupid thing to say some people may die because of it I personally want a higher caliber individual as potus not some idiot with no impulse control yapping about the first thing that enters his head definitely unsuited for the job as potus 

It's all very humorous and I like Donald's tongue-in-cheek style.  

22 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

"Rex Tillerson was right, this guy is a ******* moron."

Yes!

Just now, torturedsole said:

It's all very humorous and I like Donald's tongue-in-cheek style.  

Nothing tongue in cheek about it, simply ignorant and dangerous.

3 minutes ago, torturedsole said:

It's all very humorous and I like Donald's tongue-in-cheek style.  

The problem is some people take him seriously and could die as a result 

3 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Nothing tongue in cheek about it, simply ignorant and dangerous.

The world has gone bonkers, stevenl.  The Donald is the best antidote to all this nonsense. 

6 minutes ago, torturedsole said:

The world has gone bonkers, stevenl.  The Donald is the best antidote to all this nonsense. 

He is the cause of a lot of the nonsense.

Your posts are making no sense at all.

1 minute ago, stevenl said:

Your posts are making no sense at all.

Touche, my friend.

 

 

My favorite line from the daily update from April 23, 2020 - where the president floated various "ideas", which seemed better suited to cleaning one's oven...

 

Mr. Trump said he was just brainstorming ideas.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2004/24/cnr.23.html

 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

 

TRUMP: I'm just here to present talent. I'm here to present ideas because we want ideas to get rid of this thing. If heat is good, if sunlight is good, that's a great thing as far as I'm concerned.

 

 

"I'm just here to present talent."

 

OK, but no grabbing. Not sure if he thinks he's back in the beauty pageant business, or the reality TV show business?

 

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, stevenl said:

He is the cause of a lot of the nonsense.

Have you ever listened to a band called Tame Impala, stevenl? 

9 minutes ago, Tug said:

The problem is some people take him seriously and could die as a result 

There is an annual award ceremony for people who died doing the most stupid thing. Anybody that actually tries injecting themselves with bleach, well let's just say, I hope they didn't breed before trying it. It really is time for the school system to bring back logical and rational thinking. That millenials think eating Tide pods and injecting bleach are good ideas, is frankly terrifying. Remember, they will get to vote one day.

 

And maybe it's time for Trump to start reading prepared speeches from a teleprompter, as previous POTUS's did. His riffing and thinking on his feet just seems to trigger the youth. Well, something for him to consider.

4 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

My favorite line from the daily update from April 23, 2020 - where the president floated various "ideas", which seemed better suited to cleaning one's oven...

 

Mr. Trump said he was just brainstorming ideas.

 

http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/2004/24/cnr.23.html

 

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

 

TRUMP: I'm just here to present talent. I'm here to present ideas because we want ideas to get rid of this thing. If heat is good, if sunlight is good, that's a great thing as far as I'm concerned.

 

 

"I'm just here to present talent."

 

OK, but no grabbing. Not sure if he thinks he's back in the beauty pageant business, or the reality TV show business?

 

 

 

 

Honestly, who doesn't love The Donald?  Don't all rush to vote.  

4 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

That millenials think eating Tide pods and injecting bleach are good ideas,

Drink French polish.  Horrible death, beautiful finish.  

it must be humiliating to work for such a person and trump wasent kidding he wanted to use resources to investigate his hair brained idea just sad 

31 minutes ago, torturedsole said:

It's generally a good time for sanitising products manufacturers.  Let them beat their drum.  

 

Oh, they're working on it already...

 

10 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

And maybe it's time for Trump to start reading prepared speeches from a teleprompter, as previous POTUS's did. His riffing and thinking on his feet just seems to trigger the youth. Well, something for him to consider.

This is one of your more reasonable comments.  Glad to see you're not trying to defend the indefensible. 

1 hour ago, Captain_Bob said:

Just when Trump couldn't sink any lower he opens his mouth yet again with asinine stupid reckless comments/advice. He really is a sociopath, doesn't care about anything but feeding his ego with lies and hypocrisy like a school child bully. MUST get rid of him asap!  

There are three reasons why 45 opens his mouth -

1.  Tell lies,
2.  Self aggrandizement; and 
3.  Change feet!

31 minutes ago, TopDeadSenter said:

There is an annual award ceremony for people who died doing the most stupid thing. Anybody that actually tries injecting themselves with bleach, well let's just say, I hope they didn't breed before trying it. It really is time for the school system to bring back logical and rational thinking. That millenials think eating Tide pods and injecting bleach are good ideas, is frankly terrifying. Remember, they will get to vote one day.

 

And maybe it's time for Trump to start reading prepared speeches from a teleprompter, as previous POTUS's did. His riffing and thinking on his feet just seems to trigger the youth. Well, something for him to consider.

So the people taking up Trump's suggestions need to be educated.

 

You can try and blame millennials, but how about educating the person that made the suggestion?

 

But good to see you have reached the same conclusion many have reached earlier: don't trust Trump's words.