False COVID-19 claims complicate recovery
Posted May 2020
Staff Editor
Scientists are attempting to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 and medical professionals are doing their best to treat anyone who gets sick, but false accusations on how to stay safe, along with people not taking necessary precautions, are making this process harder to complete.
Social media platforms are full of false statements and misinformation about the Coronavirus. There were false statements about how to tell if you were sick, for example it was erroneously stated that if a person can’t hold their breath for over 10 seconds without coughing then they have COVID-19. There is also misinformation about how to deal with COVID-19, one incorrect treatment for COVID-19 shared throughout social media was that drinking a sip or two of water every 15 minutes could flush a person’s system. Both were proved incorrect: some cases of COVID-19 did show signs of fibrosis but many did not, and drinking water is important to everyday health but has no effect of COVID-19 development in a body.
Another source of widespread misinformation have been political statements, many of which have been made by President Donald Trump.
“This is a flu. This is like a flu,” said Trump during a news conference on Feb. 26.
However, COVID-19 is unlike the flu in many ways, most pressingly COVID-19 has a higher fatality rate than the flu. The flu has a fatality rate of 0.1 percent while COVID-19 has a six percent fatality rate, that rate is continuously changing because COVID-19 is still a new disease.
“I see disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning,” stated Trump. “Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that.”
In response to this misguided statement, Reckitt Benckiser, the parent company of the maker of Lysol and Dettol, posted a statement on their website.
“As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion, or any other route).”
Many medical organizations are uploading websites with lists of options that people should do every day so that they will remain as safe as possible. The Red Cross is one of the organizations that are constantly updating helpful tips as new information is found. The most important tips are making sure that you wash your hands regularly, avoid contact with others, cover your mouth and nose with a mask though this mask should not be a mask made for healthcare professionals, and make sure to clean and disinfect commonly touched surfaces daily.
