Michigan Gov. Whitmer cautions against “dangerous” COVID-19 rhetoric

April 27, 2020April 27, 2020 Kevin

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Doubling down on her decision to maintain the state’s stay-at-home orders despite protests, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer offered another grim message on Sunday.

Following President Donald Trump’s comments regarding disinfectants, there was a notable spike in calls regarding ingesting cleaning products under the belief it will eradicate the virus.

The president, who spoke of the possibility of an “injection” of “the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute” clarified his comments on Friday saying he was being “sarcastic,” while the White House said his comments were taken “out of context.”

“We have seen an increase in numbers of people calling poison control and so I think it’s really important that every one of us with a platform disseminate medically accurate information,” Whitmer told ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “When the person with the most powerful position on the planet is encouraging people to think about disinfectants — whether it was serious or not — people listen.”

Added Whitmer, “And I want to say, unequivocally, no one should be using disinfectants digested to fight COVID-19. Please don’t do it. Just don’t do it.”

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan echoed Whitmer’s comments on This Week. “We had hundreds of calls come in to our emergency hotline at our health department asking if it was — if it was right to ingest Clorox or, you know, alcohol cleaning products, whether that was going to help them fight the virus, so we had to put out that warning to make sure that people were not doing something like that which would kill people,” he said.

He added that the president should “Stick to the message and make sure that these press conferences are fact-based.”