注意：这些关于“新冠肺炎”的偏方都没用

吃大蒜能防新冠肺炎？每15分钟喝一次水？不能吃冰淇淋？社交网络上关于疫情以及预防病毒感染的谣言满天飞。其实这些偏方真的没用。
1. Lots of posts that recommend eating garlic to prevent infection are being shared on Facebook.

 

The WHO (World Health Organization) says that while it is "a healthy food that may have some antimicrobial properties", there's no evidence that eating garlic can protect people from the new coronavirus.

 

In lots of cases, these kinds of remedies aren't harmful in themselves, as long as they aren't preventing you from following evidence-based medical advice. But they have the potential to be.

 

The South China Morning Post reported a story of a woman who had to receive hospital treatment for a severely¹ inflamed² throat after consuming 1.5kg of raw garlic.

We know, in general, that eating fruit and vegetables and drinking water can be good for staying healthy. However, there is no evidence specific foods will help fight this particular virus.

 

 

2.  YouTuber Jordan Sather, who has many thousands of followers³ across different platforms, has been claiming that a "miracle mineral supplement", called MMS, can "wipe out" coronavirus.

 

It contains chlorine dioxide - a bleaching⁴ agent.

 

Sather and others promoted the substance even before the coronavirus outbreak, and in January he tweeted that, "not only is chlorine dioxide (aka MMS) an effective cancer cell killer⁵, it can wipe out coronavirus too".

 

Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned about the dangers to health of drinking MMS. Health authorities in other countries have also issued alerts about it.

 

The FDA says it "is not aware of any research showing that these products are safe or effective for treating any illness". It warns that drinking them can cause nausea⁶, vomiting⁷, diarrhoea and symptoms of severe dehyrdation.

 

 

3.  There have been many reports of shortages of hand sanitiser gel, as washing your hands is one key way to prevent spread of the virus.

 

But these recipes were for a disinfectant better suited for cleaning surfaces and, as scientists pointed⁸ out, not suitable for use on skin.

 

Alcohol-based hand gels usually also contain emollients⁹, which make them gentler on skin, on top of their 60-70% alcohol content.

 

Professor Sally Bloomfield, at the London School of Hygiene¹⁰ and Tropical Medicine, says she does not believe you could make an effective product for sanitising hands at home - even vodka only contains 40% alcohol.

 

For cleaning surfaces, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says most common household disinfectants should be effective.

 

4. The use of colloidal¹¹ silver was promoted on US televangelist Jim Bakker's show. Colloidal silver is tiny particles of the metal suspended in liquid. A guest on the show claimed the solution kills some strains of coronavirus within 12 hours (while admitting it hadn't yet been tested on Covid-19).

 

The idea that it could be an effective treatment for coronavirus has been widely shared on Facebook, particularly by "medical freedom" groups which are deeply suspicious of mainstream¹² medical advice.

 

Proponents¹³ of colloidal silver claim it can treat all kinds of health conditions, act as an antiseptic, and state it helps the immune system. But there's clear advice from the US health authorities that there's no evidence this type of silver is effective for any health condition. More importantly, it could cause serious side effects including kidney damage, seizures¹⁴ and argyria - a condition that makes your skin turn blue.

 

They say that, unlike iron or zinc¹⁵, silver is not a metal that has any function in the human body.

 

 

5. One post, copied and pasted by multiple Facebook accounts, quotes a "Japanese doctor" who recommends drinking water every 15 minutes to flush out any virus that might have entered the mouth. A version in Arabic has been shared more than 250,000 times.

 

Professor Bloomfield says there is absolutely no evidence this will help.

 

Airborne viruses enter the body via the respiratory tract¹⁶ when you breathe in. Some of them might go into your mouth, but even constantly drinking water isn't going to prevent you from catching¹⁷ the virus.

 

Nonetheless, drinking water and staying hydrated is generally good medical advice.

 

6. There are lots of variations of the advice suggesting heat kills the virus, from recommending drinking hot water to taking hot baths, or using hairdryers.

 

One post, copied and pasted by dozens of social media users in different countries - and falsely attributed to Unicef - claims that drinking hot water and exposure to the sun will kill the virus, and says ice cream is to be avoided.

 

Charlotte Gornitzka, who works for Unicef on coronavirus misinformation, says: "A recent erroneous online message...purporting¹⁸ to be a Unicef communication appears to indicate that avoiding ice cream and other cold foods can help prevent the onset¹⁹ of the disease. This is, of course, wholly untrue."

 

We know the flu virus doesn't survive well outside the body during the summer, but we don't yet know how heat impacts the new coronavirus.

 

Trying to heat your body or expose yourself to the sun - presumably to make it inhospitable to the virus - is completely ineffective, according to Prof Bloomfield. Once the virus is in your body, there's no way of killing²⁰ it - your body just has to fight it off.

 

Outside the body, "to actively²¹ kill the virus you need temperatures of around 60 degrees", says Professor Bloomfield - far hotter than any bath or sauna.

 

Washing bed linen²² or towels at 60 degrees is a good idea, as this can kill any viruses in the fabric²³. But it's not a good option for washing your skin.

 

And having a hot bath or drinking hot liquids won't change your actual body temperature, which remains²⁴ stable unless you are already ill.

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