WHO official pushes back on COVID-19 myths

Team Udayavani, May 9, 2020, 8:00 AM IST

Geneva: The World Health Organization’s emergencies chief is pushing back against misinformation that heating or cooling the body can help fight the coronavirus.

Dr. Michael Ryan said Friday he’d heard various stories suggesting it might be important to be very hot or be very cold to fight COVID-19.

This has no impact on the virus, he said. Ryan’s comments were the latest attempt to dispel urban legend and other speculation about how to defend against, counteract or seek miracle home remedy-style cures for the pandemic disease.

Ryan noted that viruses and infectious diseases often cause the body to have fevers. Having a temperature in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, he said.

But also that temperature has to be carefully monitored, especially in children. But the idea that temperature itself is affecting the way the virus will behave in the body is not true.