Back when the former guy was still in the White House, he gave the world varying forms of unqualified medical advice. Possibly one of the stupidest was somehow ingesting bleach—to the visible horror of former White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx.
In the tradition of Forest Gump’s enduring statement, “Stupid is as stupid does,” the Qanon crowd who apparently view the Orange Menace as some sort of heaven-sent deity, are still following this “advice.”
According to reports from multiple outlets, the Qanon fans hanging out in Dallas awaiting the resurrection of John Kennedy or Junior—we’ve heard both—are drinking a bleach cocktail to protect themselves from Covid.
The Daily Beast reports,
QAnon acolytes in Dallas are now drinking toxic chemicals from a communal punch bowl, according to the family of a woman who joined the Texas “cult” that’s waiting for the supposed resurrection of President John F. Kennedy and his late son, JFK Jr.
Numerous members of the Leek family told the Dallas Observer that the woman, who reportedly abandoned her husband and children in Delaware last month to follow Trump-supporting QAnon leader Michael Brian Protzman to Dallas, has been quaffing a mixture containing chlorine dioxide—industrial bleach—which she apparently distributes among the group.
These folks are very consistent in refusing to learn from their mistakes. Reports of drinking bleach are not new. Science publication, The Nautilus reported on this a year ago:
At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, QAnon supporters advised people that drinking bleach could cure COVID-19.
QAnon is a conspiracy theory that posits that President Donald Trump is seeking to bust a pedophile ring. Supporters of this theory frequently hail Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS), which is bleach, as the ultimate cure for coronavirus. Despite several warnings from public health offices to the contrary, including the idea that injecting bleach “causes massive organ damage and the blood cells in the body to basically burst,” there are still frequent reports of people following this advice.
Trump also wondered aloud in April if injecting disinfectant into your body could help ward off the virus, and during their first presidential debate on Sept. 29, Joe Biden ridiculed him for that suggestion. Trump has since said he was kidding. But even six months after Trump’s initial comments, U.K. commentators were clashing over the president’s words, and fact checks still had to be written.
Unsurprisingly, the bleach movement has since made its way to Amazon.
In April, the FDA reported that a federal judge entered an injunction against Genesis II Church of Health and Healing to prevent it from selling diluted chlorine dioxide labeled as MMS. But that hasn’t stopped people from drinking bleach six months into the pandemic. Reports of bleach ingestion are still coming in from Texas and Georgia.
Reminder: Lysol disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as directed and in line with usage guidelines pic.twitter.com/yPVhvINxbU
— Lysol US (@Lysol) April 24, 2020
The American Cleaning Institute, a trade group representing the U.S. cleaning products industry, in its own follow-up statement announced that, “Disinfectants are meant to kill germs or viruses on hard surfaces. Under no circumstances should they ever be used on one’s skin, ingested or injected internally.”
Qanon fans in Dallas are seemingly engaged in a competition of some sort with anti-vaxxers and other conspiracy consumers to see who can win a Darwin Award. The jury is still out.
Marty Kassowitz
Marty Kassowitz is co-founder of Factkeepers. As founder of Interest Factory and View360, he brings more than 30 years experience in effective online communications, social media management, and platform development to the site. He is a writer, designer, editor and long time observer of the ill-logic demonstrated by too many members of the species known as Mankind. After a long history of somewhat private commentary on a subject he totally hates: politics, Marty was encouraged to build this site and put up his own analyses as well as curate relevant content from other sources.