Beware faux COVID-19 ‘treatments’

Q: There are a lot of alternative treatments online to help deal with COVID-19. Some sound pretty good. What do you think?

A: Every crisis provides an opportunity for scammers and dreamers — and that means there is a huge amount of COVID-19-related products out there that promise to prevent, treat or cure the virus based on nothing but guesses, suppositions, internet gossip and fabrications, and, in some cases, the inclination to perpetrate downright fraud.

Prevention comes from being healthy and minimizing chronic inflammation in your body so your immune strength is good. It also depends on you following proven, risk-reducing protocols: wearing a mask; washing your hands well and frequently; staying away from large gatherings; getting the vaccine; and then continuing to be masked and careful until we are sure about the impact of variants of the virus and how mass vaccination will play out. Treatment, obviously, should be done by your doctor or in a hospital.

The Food and Drug Administration is actively issuing warnings to companies that sell products that exploit your hope for easy solutions. Lately they’ve gone after ones that claim their teletemperature reading devices can diagnose COVID-19 (they can’t) and others that push hyped-up vitamins as treatments and cures for the infection. We always say take a half a multivitamin twice a day along with extra vitamin D to get your blood level into the 50-80 ng/ml range. Stick with that.

The FDA has also sent warning letters to companies selling teas that are supposed to prevent or treat the infection and to others pushing hokey-sounding stuff they claim will detox your cells or boost blood oxygen levels.

It’s impossible for the government to shut down all these fake COVID-19-related companies, so it’s your responsibility to steer clear of products that deliver little more than a hole in your wallet. You can check out the FDA’s list of companies pushing dangerous COVID19 treatments by Googling “FDA warning letters.”