Nicola Sturgeon has urged US president Donald Trump to “be more responsible” in his public messaging over coronavirus.
The Scottish first minister’s comments came after she was asked about the possibility of a G7 summit taking place in the US. Trump said he aims to reschedule the meeting, which was previously cancelled due to the virus.
During her daily briefing on the virus in Edinburgh, Sturgeon said: “I say this not just as the leader of a government, I say this as a citizen – I would like to see the president of the United States, in his demeanour and public utterances around dealing with this virus, be just a little bit more responsible.
“We laugh sometimes about previous comments about disinfectant and some of the comments he’s made recently about testing, but it’s so important that we give clear advice and message to people and we try to base that on the best knowledge, science and information that we’ve got.
“I think that’s a responsibility for leaders at the best of times, but it’s such an important responsibility at times like this.”
Trump drew criticism last month when he publicly asked one of his top health advisers to look into the possibility of using injections of disinfectant to counter Covid-19, which he said would “knock it out in a minute”.
The president later claimed he was making the comments “sarcastically”, telling journalists in the White House he wanted “to see what would happen” as a result of the question.
