#200) The Stupid - It Hurts

April 24, 2020

I have long relied on National Public Radio for honest, comprehensive, and non-biased reporting.  At the start of this pandemic NPR aired your White House virus briefings live and in their entirety, even when they went on for hours and hours (and hours and hours).  Recently, however, NPR has decided to stop covering the briefings.  They can still be accessed (in their entirety) at NPR.org on-line, but they are no longer given live-air time.  This was done for two reasons: 1) many listeners asked NPR to cease coverage because the briefings became less newsworthy over time, and 2) the NPR news team felt the briefings to be "meandering and contradictory and the president has at times also used them to spread falsehoods and air personal grievances."  Station KUOW in Seattle cited "a pattern of false or misleading information provided that can not be fact checked in real time."

So yesterday's briefing was newsworthy in that it went beyond "false and misleading" and straight to dangerous and life-threatening when you suggested that perhaps people could inject cleaning fluids such as disinfectants into their bodies as a way to kill the virus.

Medical professionals all over the country were quick (so very f***ing quick) to counteract your statements as wrong and dangerous and in the case of certain disinfectants, even lethal.  Manufacturers of such products as Lysol were also quick to distance themselves as much as possible from your remarks and warned people in no uncertain terms of the dangers of internal use. 

During that same briefing you also latched on to the idea that heat and light might possibly be used as anti-viral treatments.  "So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous — whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light — and I think you said that hasn't been checked but you're going to test it," Trump said. "And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside of the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting." (Do you, like, own some tanning beds that you're looking to unload or what?)

Seriously...so much stupid....I can't make this stuff up.

Sincerely Speechless,

Amy Beaton

P.S.  Here's another little gem from that briefing:

"Maybe you can, maybe you can’t ... I’m not a doctor. But I’m, like, a person that has a good you-know-what," Trump said, pointing to his head.