Bad medicine

Snake oil would be better

THE DUTCH used to have a term, kwakzalver, which referred to somebody who was hawking a potion or salve. The English adopted the name as “quacksalver.” Modern speakers have shortened it to “quack.”

A court in Florida — four words that’ll catch your eye — has stopped the online sale of an unapproved product that’s been marketed as a cure for the coronavirus. According to an item in this paper Monday, the Department of Justice has said Miracle Mineral Solution was being sold as a way to prevent or cure covid-19, as well as other diseases.

But . . . .

“When combined with an activator, the chemical product becomes a bleach solution, the federal agency said this month.”

As the president of the United States learned last week, if folks were to put this stuff inside their bodies, their bodies would reject it, make the person sick, or worse.

Curious for more, we googled this Miracle Mineral Solution. What we found was a bizarre world of cure-all claims, a church (of sorts), and warnings from public officials and doctors to stay away from this stuff.

Several news organizations have investigated something called the “Genesis 2 Church of Health and Healing” which has been selling its product, claiming it cures HIV, autism and — now that it’s in the news — the covid-19 bug.

“The coronavirus is curable,” says one man in an Internet video. “Do you believe it? You better!” According to the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles, he’s an archbishop in the church.

“Every week I’m putting in the G2 sacramental dosing for coronavirus,” he said, according to the report. “Six drops MMS activated, four ounces of water . . . small children we cut everything in half.”

Victims have been heard from. The courts have been heard from. And now the FDA has been heard from.

“MMS consumers are drinking bleach,” the Federal Drug Administration says on its website. Adding: “Websites selling Miracle Mineral Solution describe the product as a liquid that is 28 percent sodium chlorite in distilled water. Product directions instruct people to mix the sodium chlorite solution with a citric acid, such as lemon or lime juice, or another acid before drinking. In many instances, the sodium chlorite is sold with a citric acid ‘activator.’ When the acid is added, the mixture becomes chlorine dioxide, a powerful bleaching agent.

“Both sodium chlorite and chlorine dioxide are the active ingredients in disinfectants and have additional industrial uses. They are not meant to be swallowed by people.”

Good safety tip.

Mankind will find the solution to this problem, the key to figuring out the virus. When, is hard to say. But until then, let’s stay away from charlatans and their quackery.

What they don’t know can hurt the rest of us.