President Donald Trump’s suggestion that disinfectants like Lysol could be taken internally to treat coronavirus has drawn wide condemnation from health professionals, but Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) — a trained medical doctor — refused to take it seriously.
As a gastroenterologist, Cassidy should know that ingesting or injecting poisons is dangerous and that public officials like Trump should not be suggesting the use of them in this fashion.
On Sunday, however, Cassidy blew off Trump’s remarks when given a chance to counter them with his own medical expertise.
“You’re a senator, but you’re also Dr. Cassidy,” CNN’s John King said. “I’m interested in your perspective. If you look at Google searches this past week, after the president talked about sunlight and using disinfectants, you see a spike for searches for ‘inject yourself with disinfectant.’ We’re in the position this past week where the Centers for Disease Control and U.S. Surgeon General had to put out public statements saying, and this is my translation, don’t listen to the president, be careful here.”
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Indeed, even the makers of Lysol were forced to release a statement urging consumers not to take their products internally because they could end up killing themselves.
“As a doctor, what goes through your mind when the president dispenses medical advice and have you ever thought about picking up the phone and saying, ‘Sir, please, don’t,’” King asked.
Unfortunately, Cassidy just dodged the question by pretending no one took Trump seriously.
“The president speaks in such a way — people are not going to inject themselves,” Cassidy replied. “When I hear this conversation around that, I think to myself, we should be talking about how do we use data to guide where we can reopen the economy, and not about what the president said on Lysol. Because, really, no one is going to inject themselves with Lysol.”
King then fact-checked Cassidy on the spot by pointing out that calls to poison control centers spiked after Trump made the remarks.
“I need to interrupt there, I hope you’re right,” King responded. “If you talk to the — on the Maryland hotline, they got a lot of phone calls. He puts the nugget in people’s minds. If he hadn’t mentioned it, those searches don’t happen, those phone calls don’t happen, the time is not wasted and we can get to the point you’re trying to make.”
King is right. Instead of focusing on preventing the spread of coronavirus to the point where we can re-open the country, Trump once again suggested a ridiculous treatment that could kill those who try it.
Still, Cassidy ignored the issue.
“So, we can talk about Lysol, if you want to, John, we really can,” he said. “What we should be talking about is how do we use data in order to keep people safe and reopen an economy. That’s not Lysol, but it is what opens our economy and that’s what I focus on.”
“We also have to cover the president of the United States when he says things,” King said.
Here’s the video via YouTube:
Again, it’s worth noting that Trump is not a doctor. Cassidy is a doctor and he should be picking up that phone to tell Trump to cut it out. His first duty as a doctor is to “do no harm.” Well, by refusing to stand up to Trump and enabling him to give deadly medical advice, Cassidy is doing a lot of harm.
Featured image via screen capture
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