Lysol warns against internal use of disinfectants after media claims Trump suggested it

The company that makes Lysol warned on Friday that its cleaning products cannot and should not be administered to the human body to treat coronavirus. This comes after President Donald Trump asked questions about possible treatments at Thursday's White House briefing.

President Trump's full comments on the matter are provided below:

The maker of Lysol and Dettol was quick to issue a warning against using their products internally.

Reckitt Benckiser released a statement saying, “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).”

Trump has talked about the possibility of many different therapies and vaccines for the virus as he pushes for the United States to reopen their economy as soon as possible.

New research on how sunlight and humidity can be beneficial to fighting coronavirus was pitched by the White House on Thursday. Previous studies did not show much support for the idea that warmer summer temperatures and higher humidity will lessen the spread of the virus.

During the Thursday White House briefing, William Bryan from the Department of Homeland Security noted that “emerging results” are showing that solar light is very effective when it comes to killing the virus in the air and on surfaces. He added that similar effects come from more humidity and higher temperatures. Testing on the virus has been carried out since February by a biocontainment lab located in Maryland.

“The virus is dying at a much more rapid pace just from exposure to higher temperatures and just from exposure to humidity,” Bryan said.

Trump was asked if telling people to go outside in the heat was dangerous due to the number of deaths that have occurred in Florida.

“I hope people enjoy the sun. And if it has an impact, that’s great,” Trump said, “It’s just a suggestion from a brilliant lab by a very, very smart, perhaps brilliant man.”

“I’m here to present ideas, because we want ideas to get rid of this thing. And if heat is good, and if sunlight is good, that’s a great thing as far as I’m concerned.”

Bryan added that social distancing is not to be replaced by the new results of heat and light studies.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine brought researchers together to look over studies that have tested the survival of the virus under contrasting laboratory conditions.

“Given that countries currently in ‘summer’ climates, such as Australia and Iran, are experiencing rapid virus spread, a decrease in cases with increases in humidity and temperature elsewhere should not be assumed,” wrote the researchers earlier this month when responding to questions brought forward by the White House Office of Science and Technology.

The report added, “if there is an effect of temperature and humidity on transmission, it may not be as apparent as with other respiratory viruses for which there is at least some preexisting partial immunity.”

Another point they made was that during the last 10 flu pandemics, the peak second wave came around six months after the initial outbreak despite having started in different seasons.

In March, the emergencies chief of the World Health Organization, Dr. Michael Ryan said, “We have to assume that the virus will continue to have the capacity to spread, and it’s a false hope to say yes, it will just disappear in the summertime like influenza.”