Coronavirus: Does Drinking Tea Help?




With India now during a 21-day lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus, there's been much advice shared on the way to prevent or cure the disease.


Drinking tea
"Who would have known that an easy cup of tea would be the answer to the present virus."

This false claim - shared on social media - refers to the Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, who was hailed a hero for his efforts to boost the alarm about the virus early in Wuhan, and who later died of the disease.

It claims that in his case files, he had documented evidence that substances commonly found in tea can decrease the impact of the virus - these are referred to as methylxanthines.

And that hospitals in China started giving Covid-19 patients tea 3 times each day.

It's true that methylxanthines are found in tea, also as in coffee and chocolate.

But there is no evidence Dr. Li Wenliang was researching their effect - he was an eye fixed specialist, instead of an expert on viruses. Or that hospitals in China were specifically treating Covid-19 by giving patients tea.

News reports in China in February also picked abreast of the claim that tea might be wont to stop the virus but said it had been not true.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Image caption
A cow-urine drinking event in India
Cow urine and dung
There is an extended tradition in India of promoting cow urine and dung as traditional remedies for various diseases.

And an MP from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Suman Haripriya, has suggested they might be used against the coronavirus.

Facebook
Cow dung has many benefits. I feel it can kill the coronavirus. Cow urine also can be useful.
Suman Haripriya
BJP assembly member
There are previous studies into the potential anti-bacterial properties of cow urine.

And a Hindu nationalist group has held a cow-urine drinking event within the New Delhi, Delhi, to market its use for tackling the virus.

But Dr. Shailendra Saxena, of the Indian Virological Society, told BBC News: "There is not any medical evidence to point out that cow urine has anti-viral characteristics.

"Moreover, using cow-dung could prove counter-productive as the bovine fecal matter could contain a coronavirus which could replicate in humans."
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