Covid-19 update: Fake remedy for coronavirus kills 300 in Iran
More than 32,000 people have tested positive in Iran while over 2,300 people have died. As of now, there is no known cure for Covid-19.
Nearly 300 people have been killed and more than 1,000 sickened so far by ingesting methanol across Iran after it was spread on social media as a remedy against the coronavirus.
It comes as fake remedies spread across social media in Iran, where people remain deeply suspicious of the government after it downplayed the crisis for days before it overwhelmed the country.
“The virus is spreading and people are just dying off, and I think they are even less aware of the fact that there are other dangers around,” said Knut Erik Hovda, a clinical toxicologist in Oslo who studies methanol poisoning and fears Iran’s outbreak could be even worse than reported.
“When they keep drinking this, there’s going to be more people poisoned.”
More than 32,000 people have tested positive in Iran while over 2,300 people have died. As of now, there is no known cure for Covid-19.
In messages shared wildly, Iranian social media accounts in Farsi falsely suggested a British school teacher and others cured themselves of the disease with whiskey and honey, based on a tabloid news story from early February.