I’m probably going to piss many of you off by saying this and frankly I don’t give a damn. When it comes to medicine and science, despite his uncle being a “brilliant MIT engineer†as if that was hereditary, Trump is an idiot. Yes, I said it, he’s an idiot. But unlike your crazy uncle spouting off crazy nonsense at the Thanksgiving dinner table or looking directly at the Sun during a solar eclipse, he is POTUS and needs to be held to a higher standard.
Trump should open these briefings by giving (reading) a brief general overview of the current situation and giving the country words of encouragement. He should then turn it over to the members of the task force and leave.
These pressers have become more ridiculous each and every passing day and his tangents and boasts and attacks on the press and political opponents more akin to one of his rallies are not IMO helping the situation. But Trump loves the “ratingsâ€, you know he beat the Bachelor finale ratings don’t you? He even told us so.
When Bill Bryan of the Science and Technology Directorate at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was giving his presentation, he was talking about studies being done that “preliminarily†indicate that sunlight and the application of bleach and isopropyl alcohol and other disinfectants kill the virus on solid non-porous surfaces and the possible effect that heat and humidity has on the virus when it is aerosolized.
That’s when Trump went on his tangent, quoted here from the official White House transcript:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vice-president-pence-members-coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-31/Thank you very much. So I asked Bill 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 very powerful light — and I think you said that that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way, and I think you said you’re going to test that too. It sounds interesting.
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN: We’ll get to the right folks who could. (my comment – this is sort of like when the govement guy told Indiana Jones - “We have top men working on it right nowâ€)
THE PRESIDENT: Right. 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. So it would be interesting to check that. So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors with. But it sounds — it sounds interesting to me.
Note he is not seeming to say that this injection “inside†means cleaning indoor or outdoor spaces as he says “So, that, you’re going to have to use medical doctors withâ€. Why would you need medical doctors involved in disinfecting indoor or outdoor spaces or surfaces?
So we’ll see. But the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute, that’s — that’s pretty powerful.
I watched it and re-watched it several times. At no point did this sound like Trump was being “sarcasticâ€.
It goes on where Bryan has to clarify several times and explain to Trump that hands are not a non-porous surface:
Q Mr. Bryan, can you explain why some hotspots we’ve seen in the U.S. are hot and humid, like New Orleans, for example?
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN: Let me explain — if you look at the coronavirus as a chain with many links, what we’ve done through our study is we’ve identified some of the weak links in that chain, that the virus — the transmission of the virus depends upon. We identified that heat and humidity is a weakness in that chain. We’ve identified that sunlight, solar light, UV rays is a weakness in that chain. That doesn’t take away the other activities — the guidance from the White House, the guidance from the CDC and others on the actions and steps that people need to take to protect themselves.
This is just another — another tool in our tool belt, right? Another — another weapon in the fight that we can add to it and, in the summer, we know that summer-like conditions are going to create an environment where the transmission can be decreased. And that’s an opportunity for us to get ahead.
Q But I — just, can I ask about — the President mentioned the idea of cleaners, like bleach and isopropyl alcohol you mentioned. There’s no scenario that that could be injected into a person, is there? I mean —
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN: No, I’m here to talk about the findings that we had in the study. We won’t do that within that lab and our lab. So —
Note after this Trump says it wouldn’t be through injection although he earlier asked (to Bryan) if that could be done and later asked Birx if heat and light could be used as a treatment to which she tried to deflect by saying something about fevers and looking to Bryan for help.
THE PRESIDENT: It wouldn’t be through injection. We’re talking about through almost a cleaning, sterilization of an area. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t work. But it certainly has a big effect if it’s on a stationary object.
Q Mr. Bryant, are we simplifying it too much by saying that it’d be better with the warmer weather and the sun coming out more and more, that people would be outside than staying inside their home, confined to the four walls of their house?
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN: It would be irresponsible for us to say that we feel that the summer is just going to totally kill the virus and that if it’s a free-for-all and that people ignore those guidelines. That is not the case.
We have an opportunity, though, to get ahead with what we know now and factor that into the decision making for what opens and what doesn’t.
THE PRESIDENT: But so are you saying, on surfaces, the heat, the hot summer, and whatever other conditions — humidity and lack of humidity — that that would have an impact so that on surfaces, where it can be picked up, it will die fairly quickly in the summer, whereas in the winter, it wouldn’t die so quickly?
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN: Yes, Mr. President. When it’s exposed to UV rays — take playground equipment, for example: The UV rays hitting a piece of playground equipment will kill the virus when it hits that — when it hits on the playground equipment. But underneath, where the sun does not get, if someone touched that and had it on their hands, it could still be there, right? Because it has to be in direct light of the UV rays.
THE PRESIDENT: If it’s on somebody’s hands, right?
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: And they haven’t touched their face and all of the things that we’ve all been —
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN: If it’s exposed to the sun, it’ll —
THE PRESIDENT: I know, but if they’re outside — right — and their hands are exposed to the sun, will that kill it as though it were on a piece of metal or something else?
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN: Not — I don’t want to say it will at the same rate, because it’s a non-porous surface. But what we do know — what we do know is that we looked at the worst-case scenario, and the virus lives longer on non-porous surfaces. So porous surfaces, it doesn’t look quite as long. So, in theory, what you said is correct.
THE PRESIDENT: This is sort of semi-non-porous, right? This, right?
ACTING UNDER SECRETARY BRYAN: That’s true. Yes, Mr. President.
Bryan here doing the delicate dance that so many others have been forced to learn of correcting without contradicting the self-described stable genius who has a “knack for this stuffâ€.
As I understand from several reports, Trump does not attend the task force pre-briefing meetings where he could have these discussions with the task force and ask these questions and get answers and clarifications beforehand, and that he reads or more precisely skims the briefing material only just before the briefing. If Trump wants to “brainstorm†his “ideasâ€, that should be done behind closed doors before broadcasting his stream of consciousness on live TV. So what is he actually doing beforehand? Watching cable news and Tweeting of course.
FWIW – here is a clip. For one thing, does Trump seem to be “joking†or being “sarcastic� The other is the look on Dr. Birx face. I’ve seen it described as “the moment your soul leaves your body†and one person on Twitter that her blinking was perhaps her blinking out a Morse Code SOS distress call.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BalDN6iGYpEOh then there’s this:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/24/revealed-leader-group-peddling-bleach-cure-lobbied-trump-coronavirus
