President Trump's recent suggestion that we ingest disinfectant to cure covid-19 reminds me of the day dad sucked venom out my snakebite, only dad wasn't joking.
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Jury's still out on whether Donald was, or where he is coming from, not to mention where he's heading. But let's all agree, it's not easy dealing with a crisis.
And as the world sweats on a vaccine for coronavirus, Donald Trump reminds us how important it is to separate a problem from the solution.
Dad really went for it that morning I burst into the milking bails all those years ago screaming I'd been bitten by a snake.
He locked onto my ankle with the laughing gear and started extracting orally with great vigour whatever venom might have been in my wound.
Of course we now know that dad might've been in peril too if I'd been bitten by anything more lethal than a carpet snake.
But kudos to the old man for springing into action without hesitation, following the accepted first aid protocols of the day.
And let's not play down the mortal threat I was suffering either because that snake nearly scared me to death.
Donald Trump nearly scares me to death too with many of the views he expresses from his presidential pulpit.
But I guess history is littered with things that caused more problems than they cured.
Cocaine was once a popular fix for toothache.
And if that's all it was good for, maybe Novocastrian Craig Lembke's recent conviction for helping sail 50kg of marching powder into the country would suggest the Hunter has a real dental issue.
But no, coke's appeal as a health panacea faded after authorities worked out it caused many of the ailments it claimed to cure - like lack of sleep, eating problems, depression, and the thought that the Feds are not monitoring your movements.
It was a similar story with efforts to combat the addictive nature of morphine, by replacing it with heroin.
Authorities gave that the green light too and look how well it turned out.
By and large people do what the authorities say it's OK to do, unless they're NRL players.
Uptake of the social distancing app and adherence to stay at home recommendations support that in Australia.
So when the president of the United States declares at a national press conference that ingesting bleach is the way to go to fight CV-19, you gotta worry a certain percentage of people might give it a crack.
Because a certain percentage of people are stupid, at a near natural selection level, which might explain how Don got elected.
But as leader of the free world, Donald Trump should be concerned about that, even if he later claims he was joking, because with an election coming up, he'll need all the votes he can get.
But being stupid's a bit like being drunk. Generally you don't realise it at the time, and more often than not, the effects are felt more heavily by those around you. No joke.
