How Not to Treat COVID-19
Non-solutions for COVID-19 that have been popularized while going against science
The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spin on all of our lives and driven us all a little crazy. Some people have been driven a little too crazy. They have started ignoring science and refusing vaccinations, turning to “natural remedies” such as ingesting bleach to treat COVID-19 instead.
Today, we will take a deep dive into understanding what these awesome “natural remedies” are and why they are probably the worst possible things to believe in as ways to treat COVID-19 (p.s. the best possible thing to believe in is masking and vaccinations).
It is important to note that a lot of these conspiracy theories start with our former president himself, Donald Trump, a sponsor of Clorox and staunch denier of the scientific community’s research. His supporters also have a big hand in spreading these theories, including the use of disinfectants, “powerful lights”, hydroxychloroquine, and most recently, ivermectin to treat COVID-19.
Non-Solution #1: Disinfectant
One of Trump’s earliest recommendations for treating COVID-19 was disinfectant. It was a fine morning on April 4th, 2020 and Trump took to the podium to speak to all the people staying at home. Right before his speech, the use of bleach and isopropyl alcohol to kill the virus on surfaces that had been exposed to bodily fluids had been discussed and recommended by scientists. Trump decided to take this a step further.
Trump praised the use of the disinfectant and then continued to encourage the use of disinfectant within the human body as well.
And so the memes started. More importantly, though, bleach sales started skyrocketing. In Latin America, where the use of bleach to treat COVID-19 had already been a popular alternative to real medicine (perhaps due to lack of financial or physical access to treatment), the use of bleach as a “miracle cure” increased significantly. The effects of a world leader’s casual comments are immensely impactful on both his national followers and international audience.
After this comment, Trump received heavy backlash from the scientific community. They reprimanded his promotion of consuming disinfectants due to the high risk of poisoning and death associated with it. Pulmonologist Dr. John Balmes at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital even went as far as to emphasize that even the inhalation of bleach fumes can be toxic for the human lungs, forget consuming it directly.
Non-Solution #2: Exposure to a Powerful Light
At the same meeting he made the disinfectant comments at, Trump also proposed the use of a strong light or sunlight to kill the virus inside of people. Once again he exaggerated the studies that one of his officials had discussed before. The study had discussed how exposure to sunlight and heat could help weaken the virus, but Trump decided to take this a step further.
He made comments on how penetrating the skin with a strong light could potentially help kill viral particles inside the body and encouraged officials to study this phenomenon.
“So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous - whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light” and “brought the light inside of the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way”.
This method of treating COVID-19 had not been studied yet, and furthermore, exposure to an “ultraviolet light” as he suggested could actually damage skin and even cause skin cancer. Though he later claimed that for both this and the disinfectant incident he was being sarcastic, this remained a turning point in the 2020 elections as many started to recognize his incapability in handling the pandemic, including his own officials that debated replacing him with a health official in future press conferences.
Non-Solution #3: Hydroxychloroquine (an anti-malaria drug)
Hydroxychloroquine is another remedy that has been supported by Trump in the early pandemic days. It is an anti-malaria drug that is also prescribed for individuals with specific autoimmune diseases.
On March 19, 2020, Trump argued that it would be a great treatment for COVID-19 since “it's been around for a long time, so we know that if it -- if things don't go as planned, it's not going to kill anybody”. He continued to back up this statement with tweets, the most notable being on March 21, 2020, where he called both hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin “game changers” against COVID.
The FDA followed up these statements by reporting that in a large, randomized clinical trial, hydroxychloroquine proved unlikely to inhibit or kill COVID-19. Despite this, over 500,000 hydroxychloroquine prescriptions for COVID-19 have been issued around the country in 2021 alone.
This comes with a plethora of safety issues since hydroxychloroquine can cause heart rhythm problems, liver failure, blood disorder/lymph system, and kidney problems, especially in older individuals. It is typically used by young women with specific autoimmune conditions who are not as susceptible to the side effects of the drug, but in the most common demographic of COVID-19 patients- older men- it can cause a large number of these side effects. As said by the FDA, it should not be used to treat COVID-19 no matter which failed tv show host tries to tell you so.
Non Solution #4: Ivermectin (horse dewormer!)
The most recent drug being proposed as a COVID-19 solution without scientific approval is ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug used to deworm livestock and pets. It has been pushed as an alternative to COVID-19 vaccinations by anti-vaxxers, especially in the United States, with popular conservative celebrities like Phil Valentine (who died from COVID-19 a week after this statement) supporting this ideology.
This ideology has been supported by poorly designed clinical trials that overestimate the effectiveness of the drug in treating COVID-19. One especially popular study found that ivermectin in high doses prevented viral duplication in a test tube, but the study was limited to a lab study only and was not peer-reviewed. It was taken down eventually but had already been popularized by then.
In humans, ivermectin can have serious medical consequences if used for anything except as a prescribed medicine for lice, worms, or skin conditions. Ivermectin can interact with other medications, including blood thinners, and also lead to poisoning if over-dosed. This can lead to diarrhea, seizures, allergic reactions, coma, and even death.
Self-medication of ivermectin as well as increased ivermectin prescriptions, which has increased 24 times when compared to pre-pandemic levels, have become a dangerous reality in many parts of the country that have filled the nation’s poison control centers with patients. The CDC and FDA have strongly condoned this behavior, as seen in the tweet above, but anti-vaxxers continue to refute scientific evidence over the past few weeks as ivermectin use continues.
In short, these four methods of medicating or “treating COVID” should continue to be shunned and discouraged upon. Vaccinations remain the best tool against battling COVID through prevention, and other drugs such as Remdisivir are much better alternatives in treating COVID. Though it should seem rather obvious, swallowing bleach is not the move and never will be.
It's sad to see that some people believed these treatments would work and damaged themselves by using them x
It is a shame that some people believe these treatments will work, and they really endanger their health by doing some of these.