Spike Lee predicts many will be hospitalised and die because of Trump’s ‘non-scientific’ coronavirus claims

Filmmaker joked that he refuses to call Trump by his name, preferring ‘Agent Orange’ instead

Spike Lee has predicted that Americans will be hospitalised and die as a result of Donald Trump’s claims about coronavirus.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker, who refers to Trump not by name but as “Agent Orange”, has also claimed that he doesn’t believe we will be truly over the pandemic until a vaccine is developed.

“I feel that we have to care about the statements that Agent Orange makes,” he told The Times. “Because those statements send people to hospital. And, later on, it will come out that people actually died following his non-scientific suggestions for what to ingest.”

In April, Trump suggested that Americans could potentially ingest disinfectant in order to stop the virus. Trump later claimed that he was being sarcastic “to see what would happen”.

Despite his claims, Maryland state officials received “hundreds of calls” about the potential benefits of injecting disinfectants in the days following his outburst. New York also registered a spike in cases of disinfectant exposure within 18 hours of Trump’s statement.

Lee also said that he deliberately chose not to digitally de-age the stars of his new Netflix film Da 5 Bloods. The movie, about four war veterans who return to Vietnam to retrieve the remains of one of their fallen comrades, sees its elderly stars appearing the same in the present day and in flashbacks.

“There’s also a thing called money,” he said. “Plus, over the years, the more films I’ve done, the more I’ve come to respect the intelligence of the audience. And I knew that they’d get it, and understand what’s happening.”

Da 5 Bloods, which stars Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters and Chadwick Boseman, is released on Netflix on 12 June.