Busting the Covid-19 ‘cures’ myths
THE biggest global health crisis for decades was bound to bring about swathes of health advice, but how do you know what’s reliable and accurate? It isn’t always easy – especially when certain political leaders are suggesting potentially deadly ideas like injecting disinfectant as potential remedies.
Researchers say ‘inoculating’ the public against such harmful misinformation has never been more pressing, and they’ve conducted a large international study to assess how much wrong advice surrounding Covid-19 food and eating practices is actually believed.
The study, launched shortly after the start of lockdown, by University College London (UCL) and The Health Sciences Academy (HSA), found potentially harmful misconceptions about nutrition and Covid-19, including nearly half (43%) of the 3,781 respondents wrongly believing it’s safe to eat fruit and vegetables washed with soap or diluted bleach, and a small minority (3.3%) even dangerously thinking gargling with bleach will kill the virus.
Study co-author Alex Ruani, chief science educator at the HSA and a UCL doctoral researcher, says: “It deeply worries me that potentially harmful dietary practices are being adopted based on widespread advice that is erroneous, pulled out of context, or silent about objective health risks. And enough is enough. We must do something about this.
“Encouragingly, 96% of the study participants believed that to reduce the risk of Covid-19 infection, they
Healthy scepticism: unsure. In fact, the reality is that gargling bleach may cause poisoning, rather than act as a health aid.
“People can die from following harmful health advice, and sadly government officials are not exempt from spreading risky misinformation,” says Alex.
One Arizona couple poisoned themselves by ingesting chloroquine phosphate, via a home fish-tank cleaner, after Donald Trump’s televised endorsement of an anti-malarial drug containing chloroquine, despite scientists’ warnings against it.