‘Disinfectant’ means ‘medicine’? Sure it does

Here come the rationalizations, the excuses, the covering of Donald Trump’s rear end over the president’s use of the term “disinfectant” to describe how one might treat the coronavirus that has killed tens of thousands of Americans.

I ran across an item from a guy who calls himself a “respiratory therapist” who says he is “not registered to vote and I don’t vote. I am neutral.”

Are we clear? I’ll proceed.

Trump mused nonsensically this week about how we could apply “disinfectant” to individuals suffering from the deadly viral infection. He didn’t say “Lysol” or didn’t declare one should guzzle “bleach.” He did, though, suggest one could “ingest” a “disinfectant.” Where I come from, when I hear disinfectant, my mind goes immediately to a household product used to, um, scrub surfaces clean. 

This individual suggests Trump, being a “layman,” used the term “disinfectant” incorrectly. He meant to say “medicine” or “medicinal products.” That’s what this guy suggests. Do you buy it? Me, neither.

Here is part of what he posted on social media:

(Trump) is basically brain storming for an idea to help the lungs. He stated that the disinfectant kills the virus in one minute, so he proposed the question can we inject disinfectant (not Lysol), he used the word “disinfectant” … in the lungs, but that is for the doctors to figure out.

Now a lay person like Trump will say disinfectant and a medical person would say “medicine”. Medicine dumped into the lungs happens all the time! I personally have dumped respiratory medicine down an Endotracheal tube directly into the lungs. When babies are born prematurely, guess what? Yes we “inject” the lungs with a medicine called surfactant that helps keep the alveoli open to oxygenate the lungs. Antibiotics are sometimes injected into infected parts of lungs through a chest tube.

… His statement was so twisted around and misinterpreted, and this is coming from a Respiratory Therapist that has injected medicine in people’s lungs.

There isn’t much more I can add to this other than to remind our respiratory therapist that I haven’t yet encountered a single individual who would sub the word “medicine” with “disinfectant.” Furthermore, Donald Trump calls himself — with words to this effect — the smartest man in human history.

Would someone with Trump’s alleged intellectual wattage use such clumsy language when talking about something so grim and serious as a deadly infection?

I’ll just have to sigh and echo the folks at Lysol: Don’t drink this stuff … it’ll kill you!