For ALL its novelty, Covid-19 has provoked human reactions.
The scapegoat of minorities, the crazy rumours about its origin and even the lack of coherence in the denomination of the new disease are behaviors that have been observed during the pandemics over the centuries.
But the uncertainty of the existing physical emergency was not necessary to produce the maximum predictable reaction of all: the urge to prevent the virus.
We have been told many times that there is no cure for Covid-19 and that a vaccine can be in years, however, its march around the world has been followed through a litany of false remedies, sold through a set of actors of bad religion and too concerned. Citizens.
An investigation by #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance, the largest collaborative fact-checking task ever undertaken, shows that so far, heaps of alleged “cures” opposed to the virus have been discredited in countries of each and every continent where Covid-19 has hit. , adding Ireland.
In some cases, fake “cures” have been proposed through world leaders, such as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who recommended a mixture of herbs to bring immunity to life, and Donald Trump, who has unfortunately advised treating the virus by injecting bleach.
The global challenge contributed to claims that a life-threatening disease could be safely prevented, further facilitating its spread.
Those who claim these claims fundamentally misunderstand the science behind the virus and have undermined national aptitude responses at a time of massive global uncertainty.
More worryingly, the challenge is not unique to Covid-19 and will possibly continue to stand until citizens take greater steps to be informed about remedies that simply don’t work.
Professor Andrew Bowie of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at Trinity College Dublin told TheJournal.ie that there are many diseases like Covid-19 for which there is no cure.
He says that while there are things we can do to stimulate our immune reaction to these diseases, such as healthy nutrition and enough sleep, it’s not the same as curing them.
“The concept that if you do those things, or if you take certain treatments or remedies, it will protect you absolutely wrong,” he says.
“The people who drive these remedies have other programs, which is not necessarily the most productive way to fight disease.”
Home remedies
Many of the so-called “cures” for Covid-19 followed a similar pattern: many took the form of seemingly innocent home remedies, composed of affordable and easy-to-find ingredients.
These types of remedies are not new. Nor do they express themselves for certain age teams or regions of the world: the country and both, one and both circles of family members, have their own examples of undeniable measures to manage minor fitness problems, from insomnia to back pain and toothache.
If you’ve ever been in poor health and an Irish mother takes care of you, you’ll probably know the taste of 7up flat. Flat 7up has all the features of a typical home remedy: it is cheap, easy to get and a family product that feeds through millions of people. Its ingredients are reassuring in nature, but disconcerting enough for anyone who has not acquired decent wisdom in medicine or nutrition.
Dublin-based GP Dr Maitiu O Tuathail says home remedies like Flat 7up act as a form of non-public care when you have a mild viral disease.
“What many of those home remedies do is treat the symptoms that cause it,” he says.
“When you have a bloodless flu or even a flu, there’s a total diversity of symptoms that go through it. If coughing is a specific problem, for example, I would recommend that patients take honey and lemon.”
In this case, the addition of honey and lemon acts to suppress the cough that occurs when a user gets the flu virus or without blood, rather than preventing the virus itself. But there is a restriction on the collective confidence of society in the tonic qualities of flat 7up, honey and lemon. Neither is said to be a cure for life-threatening diseases and a doctor like O Tuathail would ever propose one as a cure.
“The first thing I would say about Covid is that there is no cure or treatment,” he says.
Viral cures
The number of cures for Covid-19 has declined in Ireland and around the world in recent months.
According to the #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance, so-called “cures” opposed to the virus have been discredited more times in more than 40 countries.
Some of them have made the impression in Ireland, where we have noticed erroneous claims that drinking tea or a drink with baking soda and lemon, or taking sips of water every 15 minutes were imaginable remedies or protections opposed to the new coronavirus.
These “cures” included taking more supplements such as nutrients B and C, zinc or oils. Most of the time, they were general family foods, such as vinegar, lemon, honey, onion, brown sugar, coffee, orange zest, pepper and poultry soup. And there were occasional references to alcohol, such as whiskey and vodka, or drugs like hashish and cocaine.
Some remedies, such as herbal tea supposedly “promoted” through Dr. Li Wenliang, who first raised considerations about the virus in China and then died because of it, have crossed continents and language barriers, going viral in countries where the pandemic has entrenched.
Others contained express ingredients to the country where the claim was made, such as quinine tea in Brazil or “African tea” in Nigeria, providing other vulnerable people with false assurance that aid is not far away.
A Facebook source in Kenya warned that neem leaves, known as “mwarubaini” in Swahili, can cure Covid-19. Another north african proposed camel milk and urine as a remedy.
All paints have the same basis as home remedies for diseases such as colds and flu, and involve the same ingredients, which have wrapped a completely new virus.
“Uncertainty Gap”
It’s hard to know exactly how many of those claims are.
Many of the “cures” on Poynter’s online page were the same calls translated into other languages, while others contained similar ingredients with one or two discrepancies.
However, from the speed at which they debuted, it can be inferred that these rumors peaked in March and April, when Covid-19 began to spread around the world, before disappearing as the data on the virus become more available.
This is consistent with what Shane Timmons of the Behavioral Research Unit of the Institute for Economic and Social Research describes as Covid-19’s “uncertainty gap” in society.
“If you think of the times when the wrong information was the biggest of the pandemic, many things came early, when other people weren’t a little unsure about how the coronavirus started to spread among other people,” he says.
Some studies also suggest that the extent to which data might be useful, if true, would possibly also depend on whether others shared it on social media.
This is the explanation for why so many Covid-19 “cures” ended up traveling so widely: most people are unlikely to fully believe it, yet many passed it on just in case.
“It’s different from the fact that other people may know if something is true or wrong,” Timmons says.
“It’s more than if it’s true, a person’s subscribers and friends will be interested, resulting in shared behavior.”
The ‘alkaline diet’
But beyond other people who care about others, there is a more sinister basis for some of the claims that have begun to circulate.
The spread of so many false remedies that the pandemic echoed a similar proliferation of online distortions in the form of “alternative treatments” for serious diseases such as cancer, HIV, arthritis and multiple sclerosis.
Much of this has been driven through social media and skepticism toward the pharmaceutical industry, which conspiracy theorists paint as a sinister monster acting out of self-interest as opposed to the public good.
Fake remedies have a very lucrative business in recent years, as social media influencers have sought new products to monetize their posts.
Last year, Rubberbandits’ Blindboy Boatclub highlighted this practice when it undertook research and discovered that 3 Instagram influencers were in a position to advertise a “healthy” drink containing poisonous cyanide.
Others have made millions by undermining evidence-based medicine, stating that herbal remedies of choice are even more effective.
“The challenge is that evidence-based medicine doesn’t have all the answers,” says Dr Robert O’Connor, head of studies at the Irish Cancer Society.
“We have no cure or preventive remedy for cancer, or Covid, so far.”
In one case, DNA under a fake Covid-19 even seemed to have its roots in a fake cancer cure.
The Covid-19 “cure,” which has been shown in Ireland and places such as the Philippines, Mexico, Nigeria and Colombia, warned that the Israelis had managed to fight the virus by mixing baking baking soda and lemon and drinking it.
The indictment warned that tea would “alkalize” a person’s nutrition, probably because of the discredited theory, known as “alkaline nutrition,” which claimed that our body is too acidic and wants it to be corrected by eating more alkaline foods.
O’Connor believes that “it is not by chance” that a false cure for covid-19 would borrow from false cancer remedies.
“Many of those things are praised by the same people, who simply redirect their ideals from one disease to another,” he says.
“They have no technical knowledge of why some things might not be true. It’s there, and it’s a developing challenge for other people looking to lessen the burden of other diseases.”
“Look at the science”
Dr Eileen Culloty of the Institute for Future Media and Journalism in Dublin explains that the challenge of fake remedies for Covid-19 is exacerbated by the growing number of other people’s online fitness data.
“If medical experts aren’t sure, a supportive environment is created for others to look for resources of choice that they’ll offer,” he says. “You can say, “Take this, you’ll be protected.”
The question of whether you can combat the infodemic of false remedies is possibly based on other people being content with that the Internet does not have all the answers, but also on what we know about Covid-19.
Culloty points out how rumors tend to spread, especially in times of uncertainty and confusion, adding that preventing them can be as undeniable as acting on people’s intelligent intentions when they overconsume misinformation.
“One of the things we can think about is reminding other people not to make a percentage recommendation unless they know it’s a smart recommendation and is backed up by evidence,” he says.
With regard to a “cure,” Professor Andrew Bowie urges others to distrust the definitive claims that drinking certain things or drinking types of teas will suffice.
“It’s just a damaging statement, because we know very little about this virus,” he says.
“I think a healthy lifestyle is much more than any kind of posture that medications in general are a bad thing.
“Actually, it’s vital to take a look at the science of those remedies and see if they involve clinical evidence. Often, there is none.”
Until 2016, deep forgery, Brexit and Trump, Ireland saw incorrect information in the same way or at the same point as other jurisdictions.
But since the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed, TheJournal.ie FactCheck has discredited or reviewed 75 coronavirus claims. Through this work, we have been able to track the effect of the pandemic on Ireland’s vulnerability and its dating with false information.
In this series, we’ll look at some of the most infamous stories: who are they and what effect they had on the population? We looked at the environment and the computer that allowed messages to propagate; his R number is as scary as Covid-19’s.
This new coronavirus would possibly not be with us forever, however, incorrect information may also be just one of its fatal aftermath.
So now we ask: Does Ireland have forever? Watch the full series here.
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