Former US Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton has blasted President Donald Trump after he suggested scientists should investigate inserting disinfectants into the body as a way to cure COVID-19 caused by the novel coronavirus.

Clinton, Trump’s 2016 bitter presidential rival, warned on Friday that people not to poison themselves based on the president’s advice. 

“Please don’t poison yourself because Donald Trump thinks it could be a good idea,” she wrote on Twitter.

Clinton’s comment comes as Trump faces criticism from medical professionals for his remarks. Doctors and health experts urged people not to drink or inject disinfectant.

Trump said at his daily media briefing on Thursday that medical experts should explore whether inserting light or disinfectant into the bodies of people infected with the novel coronavirus might cure the disease.

 He also asked if there was a way to use disinfectants on the body “by injection inside or almost a cleaning.”

“Is there a way we can do something like that by injection, inside, or almost a cleaning?” he said. “It would be interesting to check that.”

“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.

Trump claims remarks were ‘sarcastic’

On Friday, Trump on Friday said he was being sarcastic when he suggested a day earlier that scientists should consider exposing the body to light, heat and disinfectants the coronavirus patients.

“I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen,” Trump told reporters at the Oval Office in the White House.

“I was asking a sarcastic — and a very sarcastic question — to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside,” he continued. “But it does kill it, and it would kill it on the hands and that would make things much better. That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to the reporters.”

When a reporter pointed out that the president had turned to experts next to the stage when he presented the idea on Thursday, Trump claimed he was asking those officials “whether or not sun and disinfectant on the hands … can help us.”

Trump’s explanation raised eyebrows among those who watched the Oval Office briefing.

“It didn’t seem like it was coming off as sarcastic when he was talking and turning to Dr. Birx on the side,” Fox News anchor Bret Baier said on air after Trump’s retraction.

We have a ‘quack medicine salesman’ on TV

“We seemed to have a quack medicine salesman on television. He’s talking about things like disinfectant in the lungs,” Schumer said.

“We need real focus in the White House on what needs to be done. Instead of talking about disinfectant the president should be talking about how he’s going to implement testing. Which every expert says is the quickest path to get us moving again,” he added.

Trump’s dangerous comments forced Lysol manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser to issue a statement that “under no circumstance” should its products be administered into the human body.

The company said in a statement on its website that “due to recent speculation and social media activity,” they had “been asked whether internal administration of disinfectants may be appropriate for investigation or use as a treatment for coronavirus.”

“As a global leader in health and hygiene products, 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). As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information,” the company said on Friday.

Culled from Presstv

The sun is only just rising in Berlin but Lothar Kopp, 65, is already standing in line outside a clinic in the district of Reinickendorf.

Along with a handful of mask-clad people standing two metres apart, he is here to give a blood sample — for antibody tests in the hope of finding out if he has previously contracted the coronavirus and since developed immunity.

“If I’ve already had corona then I’m not infectious,” said Kopp, hoping to test positive for antibodies as it could allow him to visit his elderly mother without the risk of spreading the disease.

As nations around the world look to ease curbs on public life, some experts have mooted the possibility of so-called “immunity passports” to allow those who have antibodies to return to work first.

In Germany, tens of thousands of tests have been performed and large studies are ongoing.

Elsewhere in the world, efforts are also under way to determine the so-called level of immunity in the population.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said last week that the state will be launching tests “in the most aggressive way in the nation” to find out how many have already had the disease.

In a rush to catch up with testing, the US regulator had even taken the extraordinary decision to allow commercial manufacturers to market their tests without formal authorisation.

But experts including from the World Health Organization have urged caution over the accuracy of the nascent tests.

Among the unknowns of the virus is how long immunity could last — meaning that even positive antibody tests may not be meaningful for long.

– ‘Nonsense’ –

Urging prudence, a WHO spokeswoman noted that there is “much discussion” over the antibody tests.

But “once we have validated tests we may still not know how well a positive result correlates with protection against disease or for how long the protection will last,” she told AFP.

Matthias Orth, a board member of the Professional Association of German Laboratory Doctors (BDL), said inaccuracies are a big problem.

People can test negative even if they have had COVID-19, he said.

“There are also quite banal coronaviruses that do not cause serious illness, and they can give a positive result.”

As for so-called rapid antibody tests — home kits that extract blood from your finger and promise a result within 15 minutes — Orth’s verdict: “They’re nonsense.”

More accurate tests will come within weeks, he said, but he stressed that “it’s a little too early to give patients a clear statement that they are definitely immune”.

– 70,000 tests –

Nevertheless, the studies, including one that started in Munich over the weekend with scientists picking 3,000 households at random to test for antibodies, are being closely watched.

A separate study is ongoing in Gangelt, in the Heinsberg district — where Germany’s first major cluster of infections was uncovered. So far, researchers have determined that 14 percent of the population had previously been infected.

Beyond studies, several pharmaceutical companies in Germany have also begun marketing such antibody tests — which must be analysed in a laboratory.

And around 70,000 tests have so far been processed by 54 laboratories, according to the ALM association of accredited medical laboratories.

Doctor Ulrike Leimer-Lipke of the Reinickendorf clinic, which has been offering antibody tests since mid-March, said: “I think it makes a lot of sense, because this way we can find out if people have immunity.

“It is very important for people if they have a grandmother or a mother or father who they care for, to know if they are already immune.”

Source: AFP

Countries in the CEMAC region have now classified their Cameroonian neighbour as a nation at risk because of the high number of people infected with the COVID-19 pandemic. Late on Friday, the sick man of the Sub Saharan region Central African Republic (CAR) announced that people coming from Cameroon into CAR have to be tested for COVID-19. A move welcomed by members of the CEMAC group.

The Central African Minister of Public Health Dr Pierre Somse went a step further by making public a toll-free number 1212 and observed that it is imperative for anyone coming from the Republic of Cameroon to the Central African Republic within the last 14 days to urgently visit health centers to carry out the COVID-19 screening test.

Since April 6, one month after the confirmation of the first case of the coronavirus, Cameroon has entered the top 5 African countries most affected by the pandemic. It has thus become the first in CEMAC followed by the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

According to statistics updated Friday after an evaluation meeting by the French Cameroun Minister of Public Health Dr Manaouda Malachie, 1430 people have contracted the coronavirus.

Among those who tested positive, 692 are active. And, 120 are hospitalized including 20 under respiratory assistance.   The Francophone Health Minister also announced on Thursday evening that some 668 patients have recovered from the virus with 43 deaths recorded.   

Several special centers for the care of patients with COVID-19 have been set up including 2 in the French Cameroun’s political capital of Yaoundé.  The Biya regime has also included the military stadium in Yaounde as one of the specialised centers for the care of COVID-19 patients. Douala in the Littoral region has 2 special centers while 1 currently operates in Garoua.

The ruling CPDM crime syndicate received last Saturday, 100 ventilators and 300 thousand diagnostic kits.

By Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow with files from Rita Akana

Doctors and health experts urged people not to drink or inject disinfectant on Friday after US President Donald Trump suggested scientists should investigate inserting the cleaning agent into the body as a way to cure COVID-19.

“(This is an) absolutely dangerous crazy suggestion,” said Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of East Anglia.

“You may not die of COVID-19 after injecting disinfectant, but only because you may already be dead from the injection.”

Trump said at his daily media briefing on Thursday that scientists should explore whether inserting light or disinfectant into the bodies of people infected with the new coronavirus might help them clear the disease.

“Is there a way we can do something like that by injection, inside, or almost a cleaning?” he said. “It would be interesting to check that.”

Parastou Donyai, director of pharmacy practice and a professor of social and cognitive pharmacy at the University of Reading, said Trump’s comments were shocking and unscientific.

She said people worried about the new coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease it causes should seek help from a qualified doctor or pharmacist, and “not take unfounded and off-the-cuff comments as actual advice”.

Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and a former US labor secretary, added on Twitter, “Trump’s briefings are actively endangering the public’s health. Please don’t drink disinfectant.”

Reading’s Donyai said previous comments by Trump had already been linked to people self-administering medicines or other products in ways that make them poisonous.

“We have already seen people mistakenly poisoning themselves by taking chloroquine when their hopes were raised by unscientific comments,” She said.

Reckitt Benckiser, which manufactures household disinfectants Dettol and Lysol, issued a statement on Friday warning people not to ingest or inject its products.

(Source: Reuters)