RBGLY Reckitt Benckiser PLC (PK)

By Catherine Lucey and Stephanie Armour 

WASHINGTON -- Health experts and a company that makes cleaning products issued warnings to Americans on Friday, after President Trump speculated that using disinfectants or solar light inside the body could be an effective coronavirus treatment, comments that he later walked back.

Reckitt Benckiser, the maker of the Lysol line of household disinfectant products, wrote on Friday that it was compelled to issue a statement "due to recent speculation and social-media activity" and warned against the improper use of its products: "We must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body."

During his coronavirus briefing Thursday night, Mr. Trump pondered whether treatments involving light or disinfectants should be studied.

"So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous -- whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light -- and I think you said that that hasn't been checked, but you're going to test it," he said. "And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body."

Mr. Trump added: "And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs."

Dr. Deborah Birx, the administration's coronavirus response coordinator, watched quietly with an impassive expression on her face as the president spoke. At one point, Mr. Trump asked her if she had heard that heat and light could work as a treatment for the virus. She replied: "Not as a treatment, no."

She added: "Certainly fever is a good thing. When you have a fever, it helps your body respond."

After Mr. Trump's comments drew widespread criticism, he sought to dismiss his remarks, telling reporters Friday afternoon: "I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen."

He said that he wanted experts to "look into whether or not sun -- and disinfectant on the hands -- but whether or not sun can help us." The virus, he said, "doesn't live well with heat and sun and disinfectant. And that's what I brought up, and I thought that was clear."

Surgeon General Jerome Adams, a member of the coronavirus task force, tweeted a reminder for Americans to "PLEASE always talk to your health provider first before administering any treatment/medication to yourself or a loved one," and quoted a White House statement saying that Mr. Trump has warned Americans to get advice from their doctor.

The state of Maryland tweeted a warning about not ingesting or injecting disinfectants, with a spokesman for Republican Gov. Larry Hogan saying its hotline had received more than 100 calls about the matter.

Public health experts were alarmed by Mr. Trump's comments. Leana Wen, former Baltimore health commissioner and an emergency doctor at George Washington University Hospital, said that "injecting people with disinfectant is harmful and could be deadly. It has no benefit whatsoever, and could permanently damage blood vessels and tissue, and even kill."

Dr. Arthur Caplan, a professor of medical ethics at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine, said it was dangerous for the president to speak off the cuff about unproven treatments.

"People listen to him, they then go out and try things," Dr. Caplan said. "You're going to kill people when you suggest try antimalarial drugs or try disinfectants or other unproven or dangerous ideas."

This wasn't the first time the president has spoken about possible treatments for the new coronavirus, which has killed more than 50,000 people in the U.S. He previously encouraged people to take a combination of antimalarial and antibacterial drugs to combat it, defying the advice of public-health experts as his own advisers debate the effectiveness and safety of the drugs.

The Food and Drug Administration warned Friday that two drugs touted by Mr. Trump -- hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine -- are linked to cardiac dangers and should only be used in hospitalized patients or as part of clinical trials for the virus.

Mr. Trump made his controversial remarks Thursday in a briefing that earlier included remarks of sunlight's effect on the virus. William Bryan, the science and technology adviser with the Department of Homeland Security, told reporters that it takes 90 seconds for the virus to lose half its strength in the presence of sunlight.

Other research has found the virus can survive for days on some surfaces, such as cardboard, and is detectable in the air for up to three hours, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Additional studies have also indicated that ultraviolet light appears to destroy the virus.

Sunlight and humidity have both been found to make it harder for the novel coronavirus to survive on hard surfaces. Currently, scientists don't know if spread of the novel coronavirus will wane in summer. An April study in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine indicated that heat and humidity may not be sufficient to significantly slow the virus.

Write to Catherine Lucey at catherine.lucey@wsj.com and Stephanie Armour at stephanie.armour@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 24, 2020 15:29 ET (19:29 GMT)

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