Dr. Deborah Birx said Monday that former President Donald Trump‘s infamous ‘bleach’ comments came about because researchers were looking into whether disinfectant would be needed to kill COVID-19 on playgrounds, or if sunlight would do the trick. 

‘This was a tragedy on many levels,’ Birx told George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America. ‘The first tragedy is the whole point of asking the DHS scientists to do the work was so children could get outside and play on playgrounds.’ 

Birx, who served as White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, is out with a new book Silent Invasion: The Untold Story of the Trump Administration, Covid-19, and Preventing the Next Pandemic Before It’s Too Late, which describes the April 23, 2020 briefing room incident. 

Dr. Deborah Birx said Monday that former President Donald Trump’s infamous ‘bleach’ comments came about because researchers were looking into whether disinfectant would be needed to kill COVID-19 on playgrounds, or if sunlight would do the trick 

Speaking to Stephanopoulos about it, she explained how Trump had met with Department of Homeland Security scientists including William Bryan, leader of the science and technology directorate, prior to that day’s coronavirus press briefing. 

‘I didn’t realize it that scientists went into the Oval Office and they started that discussion there and they continued it in front of America,’ Birx recalled. 

‘At the beginning, I didn’t know what was happening,’ she continued. 

‘I couldn’t understand how disinfectant and sunlight for outdoor playground equipment became this,’ she said. ‘And I think the scientists and the president had talked about it having a potential therapeutic.’

At the podium, Trump mused about what would happen if ‘we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light.’ 

‘And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting right?’ Trump said, looking at the DHS scientists, also seated to his side in the White House briefing room. 

Birx pointed out to Stephanopoulos that it wasn’t her that Trump was looking to for reassurance while making these comments, it was the DHS doctors. 

During an April 23 coronavirus press briefing, former President Donald Trump misconstrued Department of Homeland Security research and suggested that ‘light’ and ‘disinfectant’ brought into the body possibly ‘by injection’ could treat COVID-19

Birx, who served as White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, said Monday that ‘I didn’t know what was happening’ during that April 23 briefing. ‘I couldn’t understand how disinfectant and sunlight for outdoor playground equipment became this,’ she said 

‘And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute,’ the then president continued.

‘And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning? Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs,’ Trump said. 

Near the end of the briefing, Trump ‘finally’ turned to Birx to get her take, the COVID response coordinator recounted Monday. 

‘I would like you to speak to the medical doctors to see if there’s any way that you can apply light and heat to cure,’ Trump said. ‘Deborah, have you ever heard of that? The heat and the light, relative to certain viruses, yes, but relative to this virus?’ 

Birx responded ‘not as a treatment,’ and tried to explain ‘I’ve not seen heat or light …’ as Trump interrupted her saying, ‘it’s a great thing to look at.’ 

Stephanopoulos then asked Birx about the aftermath. 

‘Well, many people don’t know me, but I’m a pretty direct person. So I immediately went to his most senior staff and to Olivia Troye and said this has to be reversed immediately,’ Birx recalled. 

Troye was Vice President Mike Pence’s lead staffer on the coronavirus taskforce – who later became a critic of the Trump administration’s COVID response, calling for the election of President Joe Biden. 

‘And by the next morning the president was saying it was a joke,’ Birx continued. ‘But I think he knew by that evening, clearly, that this was dangerous.’

Birx also told Stephanopoulos about how all the doctors on the White House’s coronavirus taskforce had a pact. 

‘It was if any one of the individuals were under so much pressure, and they were fired, that we would all leave together from the task force,’ Birx said. 

She said the doctors included Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Robert Redfield, the former dirctor of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Dr. Stephen Hahn, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. 

‘And I think that was really important because I really wanted to protect Bob Redfield and Steve Hahn, and they were under enormous pressure,’ Birx said. 

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