Trump supporter tells radio station coronavirus disinfectant injections a ‘good idea in concept’

Nick Farreri taking on a caller who said injecting disinfectant to treat coronavirus was 'a good idea in concept' - Credit: Archant

A Trump supporter told a prominent radio station that injecting oneself with disinfectant to treat the coronavirus was ‘as a concept… not a bad idea’.

The caller, named Nick, told LBC’s Nick Ferrari:’What Donald Trump suggested was if chemicals in cleaners kill the virus, if those chemicals themselves could be made human-friendly, could those human-friendly variants on the chemicals be used on a virus killer. As a concept that’s not a bad idea.’

He then said the president was joking when he made the recommendation.

Ferrari warned listeners against the move, sarcastically adding: ‘Apparently he was being sarcastic, which is what a nation needs at a time like this, nothing better than a good dose of sarcasm where people are dying in their tens of thousands.

‘My dear fellow, you will kill yourself if you inject yourself with Harpic so why float the idea?’

On Thursday US President Donald Trump advised that injecting patients with disinfectant could be a viable treatment for Covid-19. He has since backtracked on those claims following mounting criticisms it could lead to more deaths.

The conversation then shifted towards the president’s misunderstanding of how Nobel Peace Prize worked. Ferrari asked Nick: ‘Do you not find it absolutely staggering that the President of the United States would suggest that [injecting disinfectant] and then starts talking about Nobel Prizes which journalists don’t even win’.

The caller responded by accusing Pulizter Prize judges of wrongly awarding journalists who uncovered Trump’s dealings in Russia with the accolade.

Shocked by the statement, Twitter users vented their frustrations. Paul Maloney wrote: ‘To even float the idea is shameful. One of the worst examples of leadership you could ask for. Regardless of everything else surrounding him, this was his first real challenge as president and he has completely failed. He is completely unfit for the role’.

Another said Ferrari had missed the point: ‘Does Nick (Ferrari) know the difference between a question (as dumb as it was) and a suggestion?’