Dr. Deborah Birx Says Trump’s Suggestion Of Injecting Disinfectant To Kill COVID Was ‘Extraordinarily Uncomfortable’

A year has passed since former President Donald Trump suggested that an injection of disinfectant could possibly kill COVID-19 and Dr. Deborah Birx still has thoughts about those remarks to this day.

“Frankly, I didn’t know how to handle that episode,” the former coronavirus task force coordinator told ABC News on Monday. “I still think about it every day.”

“I see the disinfectant, where it knock it [the virus] out in a minute… Is there a way we can do something like that, by injecting inside or almost a cleaning,” Trump said at a White House briefing on April 23, 2020. “Because you see it gets in the lines and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.”

Later in the briefing, Trump spoke about the possibility of using light to destroy the virus. “So I asked a question that probably some of you are thinking of, if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous – whether it’s ultraviolet or just a very powerful light – and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked but you’re going to test it.”

Footage of Birx reacting to Trump’s comments quickly went viral as she appeared to tense up. “That moment obviously – there’s a lot of tape on that, you can see how extraordinarily uncomfortable I was,” Birx said. “Unfortunately he was not speaking to me. He was speaking to the DHS scientist who has presented the data and then when he did turn to me, I said, ‘Not a treatment’.”

“I have spent almost 30 years in the military,” she continued. “I worked for every president from Jimmy Carter up through President Bush – in the military, serving them as commanders-in-chief. Those of you who have served in the military know that they’re are discussions you have in private with your commanding officers and there’s discussions you have in public.”

After her years in the military, Birx felt uncomfortable interrupting the president to correct his statements last April.

“I guess some people thought I would run on stage and interrupt this dialogue that was going on between the DHS scientist and the president, but I was just not trained in my years of training to react that way.”

Birx retired from the White House when Trump left office.