The Telegraph
5 HN mentions · mentioned in 5 months, 2020–2024
3:28 · 2.5M views · Apr 24, 2020
A Telegraph news clip of the April 2020 White House briefing in which President Trump wondered aloud about disinfectants and sunlight as coronavirus treatments, prompting a backlash from medical experts.
HN mostly uses it as a source for what Trump actually said, and commenters argue over whether it was sarcasm or whether the headline was accurate.
5 comments from Hacker News
> I think many people tuned out the moment he recommended injecting bleach - but there was still value in the briefings. It was something that I know a LOT of people actually paid attention to. This is an interesting comment re:communications and the messaging that reaches people. Trump did not recommend injecting bleach. He went on a rambling mostly incoherent recollection of a conversation he had where he was trying to learn what was being done. He was trying to sound smart. His comments were all questions to the med experts. "Is there a way we can do something like that?" "Are we going to check on that?" Yet everyone jumped on it saying he "claims" or "recommended". And it became "truth" because news articles covering the press conference used phrases like "claims" and "recommended". > "So I asked Bill a question some of you are thinking of if you're into that world, which I find to be pretty interesting. So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous, whether its ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said, that hasn't been checked but you're gonna test it. And then I said, supposing it brought the light inside the body, which you can either do either through the skin or some other way, and I think you said you're gonna test that too, sounds interesting. And I then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute, and is there a way you can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning? Because you see it (COVID19) gets in
> Didn't Trump recommended people drink or inject bleach? No, he didn't, listen to what he actually said. this video It's not a claim, it's an arguably stupid question to some guy off-screen. Yet, the title of this video is "President Trump claims injecting people with disinfectant could treat coronavirus". The outlet is the presumably reputable "Telegraph". Trump also never called Nazis "fine people". What actually was said: "...you had very fine people on both sides..." [LINK] "And you had people - and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists - because they should be condemned totally." [LINK] The job of the media is to fabricate outrage and scandals, because that's how you get attention. Trump doesn't even mind, in fact he is taking advantage of it: [LINK] Remember when he "accidentally" mistook WWI for WWII in some press conference? The headline: "Another dumb thing that Trump said!" However, it's a mistake that anybody - particularly average Joe - could've made. It's not really that negative, in fact it could be endearing to some people. More importantly though, that headline is going to take attention away from actually negative news, such as "over a thousand American Coronavirus deaths occuring every day". So, if you think Trump is really that stupid, maybe you're not really that smart.
For example, in Covid he required the States to make their own rules, He also suggested injecting bleach and sunlight might wipe out COVID in the body [1]. Federal institutions and health organizations had to warn people not to drink bleach after that, oh man. In my opinion, any leader who actually cared about solving the problem would try understand basic things better or delegate to someone who does. If anything it proves he is an authoritarian. Do you think Kim Jong Un actually tries to solve any problem for his people, or just bullshits about it to stay in power / popular with those who matter? You might see it as some type of freedom preserving move to let states do whatever they want, but his actions were about being popular with conservatives. If he actually has his way and is completely unaccountable for anything he does, he wouldn't even done anything at all. A pandemic is a thing which absolutely requires a federal response, not a "hey Texas you do this, and California, you do that". Please do not let this guy become king of America, It was fine when he was on the apprentice. He should stay there. Source: this video
It's quite amazing how people twist to pretzels to explain some ridiculous statements by the president, because no way person that I support would be this stupid. Then you have people posting pictures of "UV infusions" and others saying it was sarcasm. Like if sarcasm in that context makes that statement any better. Besides, no matter how you slice this, that wasn't a sarcasm[1]. There is a reason why his daily briefings ended abruptly after that statement. I might disagree with Republican policies, but I can understand them, but we are currently are being led by a moron. People in his administration are putting guardrails to ensure what he is doing isn't completely insane, but as more and more of his administration is being replaced by "yes" men, then more and more damage he is capable of inflicting. [1] this video
>You have many people who believe Trump told his supporters to drink bleach in other to fight coronavirus. Indeed, he merely suggested to inject bleach in order to fight the coronavirus [1]. Of course afterwards he said that was sarcastic, but even if that was true it's not really much better. [1] this video