Trump Is Building a Dystopia in Real Time
Yesterday, as part of the White House briefing on the coronavirus pandemic, William Bryan, the undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, shared preliminary government research suggesting that “heat and humidity suppress COVID-19” and that “commonly available disinfectants work to kill the virus.”
Then Donald Trump took to the briefing room’s lectern. Seizing on the notion of efficient virus-slayings, he said, in part, this: “Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous—whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light ... supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way.” And then the American president wondered aloud whether disinfectants might be used inside the body, in the lungs, as “almost a cleaning.”
Even for Donald Trump, whose far-flung moods during the briefings have included feral rage and fanciful optimism, the musing was remarkable. Light. Disinfectant. . Shortly after the briefing aired, : a close-up of Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, seated near the president, stony-faced.: “This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible, and it’s dangerous. It’s a common method that people utilize when they want to kill themselves.”) Shortly after that, the owner of Lysol issued : “We must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route).”
