Simplified images either can clarify or confuse

A simplified image can clarify a point by removing unnecessary details. But it also can confuse by leading us to believe nonsense, like the blivet shown above.

On April 23, 2020 President Trump had speculated about putting both disinfectants and UV light inside our bodies. David Gorski discussed both the next day in an article at Respectful Insolence titled President Trump and “just asking questions” about disinfectants and UV light to treat COVID-19.

Trump supporters pointed to a proposed device called Healight using ultraviolet light emitting diodes. There is a video animation on the Aytu BioScience Healight Platform Technology. At the Washington Times on April 26, 2020 there was an article by Rowan Scarborough titled Firm tests uv light treatment that Trump was mocked for mentioning. The next day at Respectful Insolence David Gorski had another article titled Healight: a highly implausible treatment for COVID-19. He pointed out that device was shown going down the trachea, and could not possibly reach most of the highly branched lung surfaces.

The image shown above at the left is the oversimplified lung anatomy from the Healight video animation. The image at the right is a cast from a lung – another simplified way of showing the real anatomy. (The Wikipedia article titled Pulmonary alveolus has a more complicated and less clear image of a lung). The lung really has a very highly fractally branched structure similar to a tree. A single catheter would be unable to reach most of those surfaces, and thus would be anatomically useless.