The fervent believers that bleach, specifically chlorine dioxide, is a powerful treatment for serious health conditions are feeling “emboldened” by their chances of gaining mainstream acceptance now that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sits atop the American health and medical bureaucracy. Until now, the so-called bleach community has been harshly criticized for peddling a dangerous and ineffective treatment.

The cause for optimism stems from Mr. Kennedy’s mention of chlorine dioxide during his Senate confirmation hearing in January, in which he praised President Trump’s handling of Operational Warp Speed during the Covid-19 pandemic by “looking at all of the different remedies” like ivermectin and “even chlorine dioxide.”

During an April 23, 2020, Covid-19 press conference in which the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, William Bryan, said bleach could kill the virus in saliva within five minutes, President Trump was criticized for positing whether “the disinfectant” could be used “by injection inside or almost a cleaning.” 

Mr. Bryan was referring to how people could use household bleach to disinfect surfaces effectively at a time when stores were out of brand-name disinfectant cleaners like Fantastik or Clorox. The White House at the time said Mr. Trump was joking.

Since Mr. Kennedy’s Senate confirmation hearing,  bleach believers with pre-existing ties to both the Kennedy and Trump worlds — like Andreas Kalcker, a German who’s been arrested and sued in Europe over his advocacy of bleach treatments, and Michelle Herman, CEO of a company that makes a chlorine dioxide nasal cleaner — are confident chlorine dioxide treatments may soon get government approval, according to a new report.

“We are thrilled that RFK Jr. is in charge,” Ms. Herman said in an interview with Wired.

Ms. Herman and others believe that chlorine dioxide, which is also marketed under different names such as “Miracle Mineral Solution” and “CDS,” can be used to treat autism, hepatitis, HIV/AIDS, and cancer. However, the medical establishment and government health agencies in America and Europe insist there is no scientific evidence supporting these claims. Ingesting chlorine dioxide can cause dangerous side effects like liver damage, vomiting, and death. The FDA approved chlorine dioxide as an “effective food contact substance,” permitting it to come into contact with food if it adheres to specific, tailored guidelines. It has not been approved as a medical treatment.

Despite or perhaps because of this, Mr. Kennedy has a history of being open-minded about chlorine dioxide.

Physician Pierre Kory, whose American Board of Internal Medicine certification was revoked for promoting ivermectin as a Covid-19 “wonder drug,” despite the medical establishment claiming that the parasitic worm treatment was ineffective against coronavirus, said on a recent podcast that he spoke with Mr. Kennedy about bleach before the hearing. 

Ms. Herman told Wired that she met with Mr. Kennedy in 2023 and talked to him for 30 minutes about chlorine dioxide. 

“I shared that, very similar to the war on ivermectin, the war on chlorine dioxide was the same story. … He listened intently, indicated he was not familiar with it, but was nonetheless very intrigued and asked for more information,” Ms. Herman told Wired.

At the height of the Covid pandemic, the controversy over ivermectin became heated, with supporters swearing by the treatment and health officials claiming it was ineffective and dangerous. The division over the treatment sometimes fell along ideological lines, with Trump and MAGA supporters being more supportive of alternative treatments and wary of the approved vaccines. Several states, including Arkansas and Idaho, have recently passed laws allowing pharmacists to sell ivermectin without prescriptions.

Mr. Kennedy has never outright championed the use of chlorine dioxide as a treatment.

Yet the lobbying of the bleach community may be working. Last week, Mr. Kalcker announced on his Facebook that the FDA had “quietly” removed from its website an article on chlorine dioxide safety, which warned that “chlorite products are dangerous, and you and your family should not use them.”

A HHS representative told Wired that the original post, “Danger: Don’t Drink Miracle Mineral Solution or Similar Products,” was removed from FDA.gov and archived “via content lifecycle standards.”

The representative also told Wired that “there is not any new FDA action and the general public health position on [chlorine dioxide] being dangerous has not changed.”  

In April, Mr. Kalcker, Ms. Herman, and other “bleach enthusiasts” appeared at the Truth Seekers Conference, hosted at the Trump National Doral Miami, President Trump’s private golf resort. Other attendees included Kerri Rivera, a controversial social media influencer who promotes bleach as a cure for autism to her 17,000-plus followers on Instagram, and who was investigated by German authorities under allegations of causing bodily harm to a child (she was never charged). 

Mr. Kalcker, who was charged in Argentina for selling unapproved medicines in connection with the death of a 5-year-old whose parents administered him bleach to ward off Covid-19, was a featured speaker at the Truth Seekers Conference, where he promoted CDS as “the biggest discovery in medicine of human mankind.”

Despite recent developments, chlorine dioxide still has a way to go to get approved for mainstream use, including extensive research and an established set of standards conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those standards and procedures are still in force.

“We know that there is awareness and support for repurposed drugs and what are termed ‘alternative’ therapies, and we hope that the restraints and prosecutions will cease,” Ms. Herman told Wired.

Fiona O’Leary, an activist who has spoken out about the dangers of bleach, is blunt about what she says are its real dangers.

“When chlorine dioxide is ingested, it causes serious, life-threatening illness,” she said to Wired.