Don’t Mainline Bleach, Please

Lysol colonics. The next big thing? I’m going to say that’s highly unlikely, but in these crazy, post-common sense days, never say never.

There’s so much going on with the coronavirus pandemic. From sheltering in place to the shut down of businesses, it has become quite clear that we are in unprecedented days. It is equally clear that this has come upon us when we have the most unprepared, unqualified, and inept of political leaders to ever maintain occupancy in the White House.

In this worst of days, with unparalleled ruin to our economy and lives, we are saddled with a president of unparalleled idiocy.

And this is where I have to step in and defend Donald Trump:

He did NOT say to ingest or shoot up disinfectant.

Technically.

President Slow Wit spoke out on Friday in his defense, claiming that his Thursday presser comments were meant as sarcasm.

His exact words were as follows:

“Is there a way we can do something, by an injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.”

He also babbled about how disinfectant knocks out the coronavirus “in a minute.”

Did he say to inject yourselves with disinfectant?

No, but as he addressed the nation, he also turned to medical experts in the room, such as Dr. Birx, and presented it as a possibility.

The look on Dr. Birx’s face was akin to a hostage in the grips of a madman, unsure of how to respond, but knowing there was no easy exit from the situation and any response could mean certain doom.

It was an insane suggestion. It was a dangerous suggestion. To frame it as “sarcasm” after the fact did not make it any less so.

In fact, it’s probably worse.

We’ve seen the death toll attributed to Covid-19 raise to 50,000 and Donald Trump feels that while addressing the nation, he should toss out a sarcastic joke about injecting ourselves with disinfectant?

The makers of Lysol missed the joke, and immediately issued a statement, warning against ingesting or injecting their cleaning products.

Why would the president do something so dumb?

I know that is a loaded question. This is Donald Trump we’re talking about. He’s not exactly keen in the departments of intellect or class.

In fact, if some reports are correct, he got the idea from a common snake oil peddler, pushing industrial bleach as a miracle cure.

According to The Guardian, a letter was sent last week to the president:

In his letter, Mark Grenon told Trump that chlorine dioxide – a powerful bleach used in industrial processes such as textile manufacturing that can have fatal side-effects when drunk – is “a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body”. He added that it “can rid the body of Covid-19”.

Has this been lab-tested and verified? Have their been clinical trials to suggest its efficacy?

Not at all, but Trump has a mind free of anything other than his own need for recognition and praise. He is self-absorbed and simple-minded. He does not possess the kind of intellect that would serve as a firewall between reality and the absurd.

So who is Mark Grenon?

Grenon styles himself as “archbishop” of Genesis II – a Florida-based outfit that claims to be a church but which in fact is the largest producer and distributor of chlorine dioxide bleach as a “miracle cure” in the US. He brands the chemical as MMS, “miracle mineral solution”, and claims fraudulently that it can cure 99% of all illnesses including cancer, malaria, HIV/Aids as well as autism.

Since the start of the pandemic, Genesis II has been marketing MMS as a cure to coronavirus. It advises users, including children, to mix three to six drops of bleach in water and drink it.

In his weekly televised radio show, posted online on Sunday, Grenon read out the letter he wrote to Trump. He said it began: “Dear Mr President, I am praying you read this letter and intervene.”

Grenon said that 30 of his supporters have also written in the past few days to Trump at the White House urging him to take action to protect Genesis II in its bleach-peddling activities which they claim can cure coronavirus.

So he’s some kind of Heaven’s Gate nutjob and he’s appealing to the nutjob in the White House.

When Trump made the potentially deadly proposal on live television, it caused a spark with Grenon and his followers. He took to Facebook to boast about their access to the White House.

He claimed that MMS had actually been sent to the White House. He wrote: “Trump has got the MMS and all the info!!! Things are happening folks! Lord help others to see the Truth!”

Trump’s touting of bleach injections comes after members of his administration – specifically the FDA – have made moves to shut down Grenon and his organization.

Last week the US Food and Drug Administration obtained a federal court order barring Genesis II from selling what was described as “an unproven and potentially harmful treatment for Covid-19”. The FDA also ordered a disciple of Genesis II, Kerri Rivera, to remove claims that MMS cured coronavirus from her website.

Last August the FDA issued an urgent warning urging Americans not to buy or drink MMS, which it said was a “dangerous bleach which has caused serious and potentially life-threatening side effects”. Drinking MMS can cause nausea, diarrhea and severe dehydration that can lead to death, the federal agency said.

Nasty stuff.

Trump knows his devotees are susceptible to suggestion. He knows they will do anything he says, even if it is harmful to them or their loved ones. What’s worse is that the crowd that cheers over every foul thing to come from Trump’s mouth, because, as they put it, “He says what he means,” have twisted themselves into knots to explain that he didn’t mean what he said, in this case.

Most of us know he wasn’t being sarcastic. He wasn’t joking. He was serious. He’s getting his information from random grifters, not the experts. He’s playing with lives, because like a spoiled child pulling the wings off of flies, it fascinates him to see what will happen next.

He’s a grifter extending a professional courtesy to other grifters, and he’s using the American public as the lab rats for their insanity.