These Quack Remedies Will NOT Cure Coronavirus

I remember when my father was dying from a brain tumor known as glioblastoma, the very same type that killed Sen. John McCain, an encounter I had with a stranger over shark cartilage. I was staying in a hotel near the hospital when this guy struck up a conversation asking what brought me there. Telling him about my dad he excitedly snapped his fingers and almost shouted, “Shark cartilage!”

“Excuse me?”

“Shark cartilage! That will cure him!”

There were people who believed because sharks don’t get cancer their cartilage had protective and curative properties that could cure cancer in humans. Of course it turned out sharks do get cancer and the entire thing was a myth.

The same lunacy is now in play with coronavirus, specifically COVID-19. As the New York Post points out, many nut jobs are crawling out of the woodwork offering cures. Don’t believe a damn one of them.

There’s the lawmaker in India from the Bharatiya Janata Party who implied coronavirus can be cured by bathing yourself in cow urine and cow dung. In reality the World Health Organization wants you to know there’s a possibility this virus might even spread through feces so for the love of God don’t try it.

Televangelist Pat Robertson spewed inaccuracies recently when saying sauerkraut, since it can improve your gut health, could save you from COVID-19.

“If your gut is healthy, you don’t have to worry about corona, All that stuff, and you’re not gonna be sick from the coronavirus. That’s what’s so important.”

Meanwhile qAnon is a far right-wing conspiracy theory involving a “deep state” trying to take down President Trump. Well many of these same people also have feelings about bleach according to the New York Post. The folks behind qAnon think if you drink bleach you can cleanse yourself not only of coronavirus but of cancer and AIDS. What does the World Health Organization think of this? They say drinking anything with bleach in it can cause “severe vomiting, severe diarrhea, life-threatening low blood pressure caused by dehydration and acute liver failure.”

So again, don’t.

The South China Morning Post reported some folks believe holding exactly 7 peppercorns under the tongue wards off COVID-19.

It won’t.

Bottom line is trust real science. Unless laughter is the best medicine, these quacks will get you nowhere.