A megachurch planning to host a Trump event makes ridiculous promise it can get rid of '99.9% of COVID'

A Democratic Congressman tried to educate the heads of a Phoenix megachurch where President Donald Trump will be appearing Tuesday after they announced they installed new technology created by some of their congregants that supposedly kills “99.9%” of the novel coronavirus within 10 minutes by ionizing the air.

“We’ve installed Clean Air EXP,” Dream City Church’s Chief Operations Officer Brendon Zastrow says in the video below. “We have a local Arizona company. It was a technology developed by some members of our church. And we’ve installed these units. And it kills 99.9% of COVID within 10 minutes.”

“So when you come into our auditorium, 99% of COVID is gone,” Senior Pastor Luke Barnett adds. “So you can know when you come down here, you’ll be safe and protected. Thank God for great technology.”

President Donald Trump is appearing at the Dream City Church for an event Tuesday hosted by Students for Trump, which is a project of Turning Point Action, the activist arm of Charlie Kirk’s far right wing group Turning Point USA.

Phoenix New Times reports the company that makes the device “has a blurb” on its website “about COVID stating: ‘COVID-19 REPORT: Lab tests confirm that CleanAir EXP eliminates 99.9% of coronavirus from the air in less than 10 minutes.*'”

The footnote states, “* Biosafety lab analysis performed on active coronavirus 229E test surrogate.”

Coronavirus 229E is one of the viruses responsible for the common cold that’s often used in virus studies.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) took to Twitter asking the megachurch, “Did you clear your statement with your lawyers?”

He added that COVID-19 “is spread through respiratory droplets from one person to another. That’s why enclosed spaces where people are next to each other for long periods, like at church, have become super spreader events.”

Here’s the Congressman’s tweet and the church’s video:

Phoenix New Times reached out to Dr. Philip Tierno, a clinical professor of pathology at New York University, who informed the paper via email: “The short answer to your question is NO, you will ABSOLUTELY NOT BE SAFE AND PROTECTED. When you are dealing with hundreds or thousands of people in an AUDITORIUM, some of whom will carry the virus you WILL NOT BE absolutely PROTECTED.”