WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he takes no responsibility for a spike in number of calls to poison control and emergency hotlines in a number of US states after he suggested last week that ingesting it could serve as a coronavirus treatment.
He later backtracked on his comments, saying he was "asking the question sarcastically".
On Monday, Trump said he "can't imagine why" there had been an increase in calls.
"I can't imagine that," he said.
Asked whether he took responsibility at all for the rise, he replied: "No, I don't."
Meanwhile, Maryland was one state that issued a warning against dangerous disinfectant use, with the Maryland Emergency Management Agency tweeting that the agency had received "several calls."
"This is a reminder that under no circumstances should any disinfectant product be administered into the body through injection, ingestion or any other route," the tweet said.
Governor of Maryland Larry Hogan, a fellow Republican, said his state had been swamped with queries.
"We had hundreds of calls in our hotline here in Maryland about people asking about injecting or ingesting these disinfectants," he told CBS on Sunday.
"Which is, you know, hard to imagine that people thought that was serious.
"But what people actually were thinking about this was, (is) this something you could do to protect yourself?"
Trump’s dangerous suggestion prompted cleaning product companies and state health officials to issue warnings about the dangers of their ingestion. A day after Trump's statement, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a reminder on using household disinfectants properly. — Agencies
