The Brief: President Donald Trump suggested that disinfectant be injected into the lungs to fight Coronavirus, so people are posting memes online in remembrance of the Tide Pod issues that happened not so long ago in 2018.

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DEEP DIVE

The 45th U.S. President, Donald Trump held a Coronavirus press briefing on April 23 that stunned the country with his surprising remarks regarding ways to combat the Coronavirus pandemic. Trump noticed how bleach can be a great agent in killing viruses so he publicly stated, “I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute.” Then he ponders on national television if household cleaning products that contain bleach, “can do something like that by injection inside [the human body], or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets inside the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it would be interesting to check that.”

This announcement caused many medical professionals and household cleaning product brands to feel fearful of any potential accidents happening in the near future because of Donald Trump’s statement. So, companies like Lysol released statements to remind the public that their products aren’t meant to be inside the human body whether that be through consumption or injection.

The familiarity of Donald Trump’s statements to a problem the United States had a few years ago caused many social media users to become nostalgic. Social media turned into a storm of nostalgic posts that reminded everyone of the Tide Pod health issues that were occurring in 2018 when over 12,000 calls were made to poison control about people eating laundry pods.

There were many takeaways from Donald Trump’s speech that weren’t heavily backed by statistics or scientific advisory. One of the major results from this Coronavirus press briefing was the many memes that are now circulating online. Five hashtags went viral on Twitter regarding Donald Trump’s public announcements and they all relate to the President’s remarks regarding the usage of cleaning products. Donald Trump was then informally labeled as the #TidePodPresident on Twitter while #InjectDisinfectant, #DontDrinkBleach, #Disinfectant, and #Clorox were all trending at the same time.

Donald Trump Tide Pod Memes