There's currently no proof that the president saw Grenon's letter, or was motivated to make those comments because he's suddenly familiar with MMS. But, whatever the reason, Trump's timing could hardly be worse: fringe cures, scams and hoaxes of all kinds are surging to prominence as a panicked world tries to make sense of the novel coronavirus pandemic, and people seem to be more vulnerable than usual to absorbing and acting on bad information. Trump's claim that disinfectants could potentially be a COVID-19 cure was all the encouragement they needed. In an editorial in the New York Times, a group of women who are all mothers of autistic children—and who monitor social media groups for bunk, dangerous autism "cures"—wrote that Trump's comments were "taken as a beacon of hope."Do you know anything we should know about people peddling dangerous "cures" for COVID-19 or other illnesses? We'd love to talk to you. Contact the reporter at anna.merlan@vice.com.
A private investigator with military intelligence experience and a career at a three letter agency volunteered his services to put together a web page documenting the work of reporters who have been the most active in spreading misinformation to the public about what chlorine dioxide is – and isn't. (See link below.)
It appears that some of these reporters have been actively coordinating with abusive Internet trolls who have been caught harassing families of children with autism. We expect that when the details of these relationship reach public awareness – and they will – that some reporters will lose jobs and even careers over this.