COVID-19 Fake Cures and False Diagnoses

Hi, I'm Hari Sreenivasan.
Welcome to "Take on Fake".

Our goal is to help you tell
what's real and what's not.

But like so many of you, our goal,

our mission, our intention,
has been completely changed

by this reality of the coronavirus.

So I'm coming to you
from the amazing studio

that is my apartment.

This is something new for me,

it's something new for all of us.

But our mission now

is actually more important than ever

because there's so much misinformation

about the coronavirus online.

So we're going to try to find you
some examples of misinformation

and disinformation about the coronavirus,

and help you figure out how to tell

what's real from what's not.

One of the first things that we found

actually had one of my socially
distancing producers

holding her breath for 10 seconds.

Right, Erin McIntyre,
what is the deal?

Why were you holding
your breath?

I was scrolling through Facebook,

like many of us are now,

looking for any kind of information
on the coronavirus.

And a friend of mine shared a list -

that was supposedly from
Stanford of different tips,

different things that you can try
to minimize your exposure

or find out if you already have it.

So one of the things was hold
your breath for 10 seconds,

and if you're able to hold it
for 10 seconds,

that means that it's not
living in your lungs.

(Laughter)

But if you couldn't,

if you started to kind of need air
before the 10 seconds, at 5 seconds,

that means you might have it.

So I literally sat on my
couch next to my husband

and held my breath for 10 seconds,

then turned to him and said,
"Hey, did you see this list?"

This does not seem very scientific,

and I'm pretty sure
that any self-respecting doctor

would tell you that this is not true.

As I was reading down the list,

then it said, "Drink water
every 15 minutes

to push the virus down into your stomach

where your stomach acid
will then destroy it."

That's when I started
to kind of question.

(Laughter)

But they got you to try something anyway.

If you forwarded one of these emails

or even tried one of these
miracle cures, you're not dumb.

It's natural, it's human nature

to want to try to gain some semblance
of control of something

that seems so beyond our control.

But remember, just as easy
as it is to copy, paste,

it's also easy to change
the text of something.

It's actually not so hard

to find very good information
about this that you can trust.

In fact, there's a piece at factcheck.org

that goes through this whole
Stanford hospital board thing

line by line.

They pull information from the World
Health Organization and the CDC,

and they discuss specifics with a medical
professional from Temple University.

Viral posts online are usually harmless,

but when it comes to our health,

especially in a time like this

when people are searching for information,

these things can be downright dangerous.

There was a post about how alcohol

was supposed to decrease
the spread of the coronavirus.

It actually led
to dozens of deaths in Iran.

So if you see something that looks
just a little suspicious online,

send it to us.

Maybe our team can take a closer look.

I'm Hari Sreenivasan,
this is "Take on Fake".

Until next time,
don't spread fake news.

Keep it real.

(Music)

Hey, Hari here. Thanks for watching
this episode of "Take on Fake".

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