US President Trump asks if he should be taking insulin

US President Donald Trump asked whether he should be taking insulin - a drug that can be fatal to non-diabetic people - on Tuesday.

Trump was speaking at the White House Rose Garden when he said "I don't use insulin. Should I be? Huh? I never thought about it. But I know a lot people are very badly affected, right? Unbelievable".

US Surgeon General Jerome Adams was called in to answer a question from a reporter, who asked why Trump would be taking insulin.

Adams explained to the president that insulin is made by your own body, and that injecting insulin is for people who are not able to make their own.

Trump added at one point: "You know, if you don't take insulin, I just wrote this down, go blind, stroke, amputation, kidney failure, and other things."

These comments come after Trump had previously questioned whether Covid-19 patients should inject or ingest disinfectants.

Trump said at the time in April: "I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? It'd be interesting to check that.

"I'm not a doctor. But I'm, like, a person that has a good you-know-what," he added while pointing to his head.

People with either type one and some with type two diabetes are incapable of producing their own insulin and so can require to have multiple doses of the drug during a day.

While promoting the new plan, Trump said he hoped "the seniors are going to remember it" come November, while attacking former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee.

"We brought all of the parties to the table — insurers, manufacturers, and other key players — and reached an agreement to deliver insulin at stable and drastically lower out-of-pocket cost for our seniors.

"I hope the seniors are going to remember it, because Biden is the one that put us into the jam, because they didn’t know what they were doing."