Trump’s daily briefing inflames critics

President Donald Trump sent his detractors into an uproar with offhand remarks about things that kill the coronavirus. At a White House briefing on Thursday, William Bryan, head of the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security, presented new research on how sunlight and household cleaners can eliminate the virus in the environment. The president then took the podium and expounded on Bryan’s comments, asking the doctors present if they were testing the use of ultraviolet or very powerful light or disinfectants as treatments for the coronavirus.

Will people really try that at home? Since the news conference, numerous doctors have taken to social media to tell their patients not to ingest cleaning products. The company that makes Lysol released a statement to NBC News saying that “under no circumstances” should its products be used on the human body. People getting sick from disinfectants is an ongoing problem in this pandemic: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this week that calls to poison control centers have increased since the beginning of March. The Environmental Protection Agency issued a warning against ingesting cleaning products several hours before Trump made his remarks.

Dig deeper: Read and listen to the president’s remarks from Thursday’s briefing.