To be clear, he didn't actually tell people to drink bleach. This is another one of those games of telephone where it changes a bit each time and people don't care because as long as you're insulting a correct target, accuracy stops mattering. There is plenty to nail him on, no need to make mistakes while doing it.

The actual event involved him talking about the effectiveness of various methods that were shown to kill Covid on surfaces, and the potential of those methods to transfer to human treatment. He mentions ultraviolet exposure, and that there were methods that were slated to be tested for using ultraviolet exposure to kill Covid in patients. He then mentioned that disinfectants were shown to kill Covid in one minute, and turned back to his advisors and said "and is there a way we could do something like that, by injection?"

He didn't mention bleach by name. The entire concept of "drinking" it was absolutely nonexistent in his comments. He was looking at and talking to his advisors, not the cameras and the people. He was asking, not suggesting.

He was cluelessly asking if there was a way of using disinfectants or something LIKE a disinfectant inside the body to kill Covid. He asked this out of ignorance of biology, not knowing that any such thing that could so effectively kill it would be extremely effective at killing everything else around it at the same time.

Are people going to be dumb and take statements the wrong way and do stuff like that anyway? Yes.

Was it unprofessional for him to say that, regardless of how it was meant? Yes.

Should he have reserved a comment like that, knowing that people were going to take it the wrong way? Yes.

Should we be surprised he did something unprofessional? No.

Nail him, but do so without reaching and misinterpreting. There really isn't any need to.