There is no study to back the claim that coronavirus lays eggs in the throat and inhaling a herbal concoction can cure COVID-19 in a day. The claims in this Youtube video are false.
By Sista Mukherjee
A video in Bengali language on YouTube captioned “করোনার ঘরোয়া ঔষধ” which can be translated as home-remedies for corona has hundreds of views and multiple re-uploads. The video claims that "coronavirus which causes COVID-19 stays on the throat during the first 4 days, lay eggs in the throat which later travels to other parts of the body". The claim is misleading.
The basic science behind viruses tells that viruses can't reproduce on their own. They can reproduce only by infecting a host cell.
To understand it better, we contacted our fact check member Dr. Maulik Patel, who is a consultant physician at Divine Life Hospital to get information about this claim, he said, "once the virus enters the body, it usually settles in the cells that line your nose, sinus cavity, and throat. For most people, this is where it stays.”
“Symptoms often follow, but you may not feel anything for up to a few days, as the virus starts to invade healthy cells and reproduce”, he explained.
The virus may stay on the throat and starts invading healthy cells in the body but doesn’t lay eggs because viruses can't reproduce on their own. They need to infect a cell and tell the genetic material in the cell to make new viruses.
“Viruses infect neighboring cells and spread” Dr. Patel added.
Further, the video also claims that inhaling and drinking a herbal concoction can cure coronavirus in a day. The claim is false as there is still no scientific evidence to prove that steam inhalation can kill the COVID-19 causing virus.
We have previously debunked myths claiming that taking steam or steam of herbal concoctions cannot cure COVID-19.
The video explains that inhaling vapors of two lemons, cloves, cardamom, garlic, ginger and mustard oil with water can kill the virus. One must also drink this same concoction with lukewarm water. The video claims "the person will be cured in a day if they follow this process every hour of the day".
We again looked for studies that may have mentioned steam inhalation for COVID-19 in the past few months and found no paper backing the practice.
Dr. Patel in response to herbal steam inhalation said, “Lemon, clove, garlic are healthy foods that may have some antimicrobial properties. But, there is no evidence from the current outbreak that eating/drinking or inhaling garlic or lemon has protected people from the new coronavirus”
While steam inhalation helps in cleaning the respiratory passage but it is ineffective against COVID-19 and carries an additional risk of getting severe burn injuries.
