'People Will Die' If They Listen to Trump and drink his disinfectant Kool-Aid
The hashtag #DontDrinkBleach trended on Twitter
Friday in reaction to comments by President Donald Trump Thursday evening
endorsing the idea that Americans could somehow imbibe or be injected with
disinfectants to eradicate the coronavirus.
"It
is April 24, 2020 and #DontDrinkBleach is trending on Twitter," tweeted poet Remi Kanazi. "The
world has not ended, but may soon."
The
president's comments came during a press conference on the White House's
handling of the pandemic, which has, as of press time, killed over 50,000
Americans.
"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?" Trump asked Department of Homeland Security
scientist William Bryan during the briefing. "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"
As Common
Dreams reported, the Trump's remarks led
scientists and other officials to insist the public not listen to the country's
highest elected official.
"My
concern is that people will die" if they listen to the president, said New York-Presbyterian/Columbia
University Medical Center director of global health in emergency
medicine Craig Spencer.
Politicians
and commentators on Twitter seized on the #DontDrinkBleach hashtag as a way to
both mock the president and to urge Americans not to take Trump's advice.
"Anyone
who does this will not die from #COVID19 because they will have already
poisoned themselves to death," tweeted Rep. Frederica Wilson
(D-Fla.). "Do NOT try this! #DontDrinkBleach."