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Comment by _heimdall | Hacker News Reader

I don't like the president, but I don't remember seeing him say to take chloroquine phosphate tablets. I definitely heard him say that he though hydroxychloroquine might me a possible treatment, presumably referring to hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets.

More importantly though, the then (and unfortunately now) president isn't a doctor and didn't directly tell people to take it. If a person heard that and decided to eat a bottle of pills meant for a fish tank, I don't know who we could lay blame on other than the person that made that choice.

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Do you remember him suggesting to drink bleach or exposing yourself to UV? [0]

Let's say for example the President keeps his yap shut about hydroxychloroquine or drinking bleach [0] etc and 10 people listening to Alex Jones die taking it because they are frightened. Now lets say POTUS goes on televised News and suggest doing dangerous things to 100 times the size of Alex Jones's audience and we end up with 1000 needless deaths of people that may not get COVID anyway. I expect Alex Jones to be an irresponsible sleaze bag but POTUS should have some restraint/intelligence.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zicGxU5MfwE

I watched that press conference[1] at the time. He didn't suggest it to the audience, as you can see in the short clip too, and even though that short clip is not only clipped in time but in the viewport so you can't see that he's speaking to a doctor, Deborah Birx[2], and asking her about these things, because they'd been discussed with him previously, off camera.

I have no idea why people keep saying that he suggested injecting household detergents or drinking bleach or some other nonsense like that, other that parroting biased nonsense or coming up with it themselves. What's more worrying is the way it was reported as such, even though he's talking to journalists, the press conference was filmed start to finish and is freely available in several places.

This lie needs to die.

Also, if you watch earlier, the guy from Homeland goes through their experiments that show the virus does indeed die when exposed to sunlight[3]. I thought it was very interesting and instructive but the next day saw the media distorting it beyond recognition.

And this, in a thread about misinformation and disinformation.

[1] https://youtu.be/bATddhoI6gI?si=2ITmdayt4rLNLalT&t=1591

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Birx

[3] https://youtu.be/bATddhoI6gI?si=NQVQo3GZq-PDyqfA&t=1198

The couple from Arizona would likely disagree if both were still alive - they heard what he said and acted in accordance with their interpretation.

Looking at Birx face while he is making those comments indicates - to me at least - a person very uncomfortable with what is being said. If they were discussed with him before (your source of info unknown) then he clearly did not understand what was being said to him. Yes UV kills all viruses on surfaces as does bleach - it is not useful for someone already infected with COVID and neither is Hydroxychloroquine (taken internally or otherwise).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d57zJr82dhQ

Whether it is redrawing NOAA Hurricane projection maps, claiming COVID will all go away in a couple of months or cabinet members claiming vaccines have not been tested while simultaneously giving indication that taking untested remedies is ok - make it a little unclear who is MIS and DIS informing the public.

> your source of info unknown

He says it in the press conference.

> The couple from Arizona would likely disagree if both were still alive - they heard what he said and acted in accordance with their interpretation.

They did something stupid, what's your point?

What is said by the President is seen and interpreted by the masses. The couple from Arizona are unlikely the only example of individuals doing "something stupid" because of things the President says.

Attempts should be made to accurately inform people and minimize the number of people that do "something stupid" IMHO. Doing stupid things can have multiple sources - being misinformed or partially informed is one of them. Scared people often do really stupid things.

Sadly misinforming people seems to happen on a regular basis with this administration. If this had been a one off incident during a crisis it would be more understandable. Sometimes Presidents make mistakes. Telling people "what do you have to lose" is for untested drugs IMO is not responsible behavior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB5e0AKSIm4

You're correct he is not trained as a doctor but that doesn't stop him from giving medical advice. When referring to hydroxychloroquine "...what do you have to lose..." [0]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB5e0AKSIm4

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