The novel coronavirus epidemic is a double outbreak: the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus

responsible for the disease covid-19, but also a pandemic of misinformation. In moments

of heightened tension, misinformation can sometimes be worse than a virus.

Panic induced rumours can result in a phenomenon known as “the worried well”, where people

who don’t have the virus read something silly online like “all people with an index

finger longer than their ring finger are carriers for coronavirus, everyone else is safe”

Then overwhelm the health system which reduces its ability to care for those who genuinely

need treatment.

Misinformation can also have the opposite effect, meaning people who DO have the virus

think they’re totally safe because their Aunt Susan shared a Facebook post that says

if you were born on a Monday you’re fine and don’t have to practice social distancing

because you’re basically half mermaid anyway.

They then blithely skip around touching stuff with their infected hands and spreading the

virus everywhere before their actual symptoms kick in 2 to 10 days later because, wow, half

merpeople are not a thing.

Unfortunately whilst there is no known cure for Coronavirus a number of myths have been

spreading around and it’s those we’ll be busting today! Some are useless but some

are downright dangerous!

If you’re watching this video in the near-or-distant future when this whole ‘oh my god is this

the apocalypse?!’ thing has blown over then cheers to you! Also, really relieved you still

have the internet.

- because obviously that’s the real worry (!)

If you’re new to this channel, hi, that’s sarcasm. Please subscribe. Not sarcasm. I’m

Jessica, a chronically ill person who makes educational yet sassy videos about life with

illness, disability and… gayness.

Not that my life would be that different if I was straight. I must be in a parallel universe

somewhere...

Wow, I’m so gay I can’t even imagine being straight.

I thought it was important to make a video about the coronavirus, firstly because it’s

all that anyone can talk about at the moment so not talking about it seems strange-

- I had a really fun video that was meant to come out today but instead will be coming

out on Friday. Because we need entertainment in difficult times too.

And secondly, because, as someone who deals with being ill every single day, watching

healthy people panic about the possibility of being so is very trippy. You don’t seem

to be helping yourselves out either as there is a lot of passing misinformation around.

And thus, we’re going to break down the biggest myths currently floating around about

the virus whilst reminding you:

[PSA] The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning

your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection

that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.

Because sometimes you just need a very British person to tell you to CALM DOWN.

Also, I’m in the ‘at risk’ category of people and even if the virus just gives

you some mild, flu-like symptoms, you passing it to me could actually kill me.

So don't do that. Thanks.

I’ve already had pneumonia. It sucked worse than anything. And I never, never, EVER, want

to have it ever again.

I’ll start with a massive disclaimer that I’m not a doctor, just an ill person who

spends a lot of time in her house researching things on the internet. My myth-busting information

has been gathered from medical professionals and briefings from the World Health Organisation

who you should listen to-

- Who actually do know more than your kooky Aunt Susan who shares Facebook posts about

gargling bleach.

Who knew (!)

Oh Susan...

Myth: Holding your breath without coughing means you don’t have the virus.

NO. No.

According to social media, if you take a deep breath, hold it for 10 second and don’t

cough then you have no fibrosis or infection in the lungs and thus don’t have the coronavirus

so you’re free to go about your merry way.

HOWEVER, according to the American Lung Foundation, fibrosis or scarring of the lungs can occur

due to infections, medications, genetics or diseases but whilst being unable to hold your

breath for 10 seconds without coughing MAY occur when you have fibrosis, it is not a

key diagnostic tool.

Additionally, as we should all know by now, you don’t need to have lung fibrosis to

have coronavirus, you don’t even need any symptoms at all!

Sidenote: Don’t glare at people in public when they cough, okay? They may just have

an allergy, or asthma.

- You can glare at them if they don’t cover their mouth when they cough though, that’s

just not nice in any circumstance.

If you are having breathing difficulties you should seek urgent medical care but please

remember that just because you started coughing whilst holding your breath for 10 seconds,

that does not mean you definitely have the virus or that, even if you do, it will cause

irreversible damage like fibrosis.

Myth: coronavirus only affects older people

People of all ages can be infected by the new coronavirus. Older people and those of

all ages with pre-existing medical conditions, particularly those that have an impact on

their respiratory or immune functions do appear to be more vulnerable to becoming severely

ill but young people can also become ill or carry the virus. So:

[PSA] The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning

your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection

that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.

Myth: antibiotics will protect against the virus

No. But at least you’ve moved on from gargling bleach.

Antibiotics do not work against viruses, only bacteria. Antibiotics should not be used as

a means of prevention or treatment in the case of coronavirus.

However if you are hospitalised you may receive antibiotics

due to a bacterial coinfection.

Myth: drinking water every 15 minutes flushes out the virus

There is currently a post going around Facebook which recommends drinking water every 15 minutes

to flush out any virus that might have entered the mouth. So it will go into your stomach.

And be killed by your natural acids.

Which is not a thing.

Also what, the people who are infected do not drink ever?

Professor Trudie Lang at University of Oxford says there is “no biological mechanism”

for washing a respiratory virus down into your stomach to kill it. They enter the body

when you breathe them in and, yes, some of them might go into your mouth but drinking

won’t prevent it from getting in through your nose… or eyes… or mouth even.

Still, staying hydrated is good for your immune system.

Myth: drinking hot tea kills the virus

So why are English people getting it?

There are a lot of different ‘heat kills the virus’ recommendations: from taking

hot baths, to drinking hot water to blowing a hairdryer in your face. All falsely attributed

to Unicef.

Poor Unicef

Trying to heat your body or expose it to the sun-

- how are you going to expose your lungs to the sun?

Is completely ineffective as once the virus is in your body we don’t yet have a way

of killing it. Your body just has to fight it off.

According to current scientific research, the temperature needed to actively kill the

virus is around 60 degrees Celsius or 140 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s far hotter than

any bath you want to sit in. But if someone in your house might be infected you should

wash your bed linen and towels at 60 degrees.

But please don’t burn your skin.

Sadly, tea can’t do much since it doesn’t actually change your body temperature, which

remains stable unless you’re ill.

- as someone who has an illness that means I cannot regulate my body temperature very

well and it thus doesn’t remain stable I would just like to say: you should be very

grateful for that!

Hand Dryers don’t actually kill the virus either, I’m afraid:

[PSA] The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning

your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection

that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.

Myth: the virus will go away when the weather gets warmer

Tell that to Kenya.

Whilst we already know that the flu virus doesn’t survive well outside the body during

the summer, we don’t yet really know how heat impacts the new coronavirus. Other than

it appears to spread happily in hot and humid conditions, just as it does in cold and dry

ones.

No, it won’t go away if it starts to snow.

But at least we’ll be less likely to go to the pub so social isolation might actually

have a chance of working.

Dr Marc LIpsitch at the Centre for Communicable Disease Dynamics at the Harvard School of

Public Health says that while we do expect to see some slowing in the contagiousness

of COVID-19 as the weather warms it is not likely to be significant enough to slow transmission

of the virus.

Again: the human body temperature remains around 36.5 degrees Celsius to 37 degrees

Celsius regardless of the external temperature or weather, which is not hot enough to defeat

the virus so...

[PSA] The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning

your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection

that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.

Yes I’m going to keep playing that.

Myth: spraying alcohol or chlorine over your body will cure you of the virus

- Ouch. That sounds painful. Don’t do that.

Spraying any kind of disinfectant over your skin will not kill viruses that have already

entered your body. However, it can be very harmful to your mucous membranes like your

eyes and mouth.

You CAN use them to disinfect surfaces around you however, which IS recommended to keep

the virus at bay.

Myth: eating garlic will prevent the infection

Tell that to Italy and China. Two countries that use a lot of garlic in their cuisines

and yet…

It’s a virus, not a vampire.

The World Health Organisation says that while garlic is a healthy food with some antimicrobial

properties there is no evidence that it can protect people from the new coronavirus.

It will make you smell though.

And the South China Morning Post reported a story of a woman who needed hospital treatment

for a severely inflamed throat after consuming 1.5kg of raw garlic.

So garlic won’t protect you.

[PSA] The best way to protect yourself against COVID-19 is by frequently cleaning

your hands. By doing this you eliminate viruses that may be on your hands and avoid infection

that could occur by then touching your eyes, mouth, and nose.

Similarly:

Myth: vitamin C and other supplements can combat coronavirus

Whilst there is evidence that certain health supplements can help boost your immune system,

they cannot specifically fight off infections like the coronavirus or spur on a speedy recovery.

In fact, for most people, taking extra vitamin C does not even ward off the common cold,

though it may shorten the duration of a cold if you catch one

- and most people are able to obtain all of their necessary vitamins and minerals through

a healthy diet so please don’t be talked into spending lots of money you don’t need to.

Please eat fruit and vegetables if you can.

The saddest thing is that some people are profiting off this belief. A certain YouTuber

and influencer, who will remain nameless in order to stop trafficking attention to them,

has taken this opportunity to peddle a ‘miracle’ supplement that is said to ‘wipe out’

the new coronavirus. This supplement contains chlorine dioxide - a bleaching agent.

Please do not take any miracle cures suggested by the internet, you’re smarter than that.

I’m going to throw ‘drinkable silver’ in here as well. The use of colloidal silver

was promoted on a US televangelist’s show. A guest claimed that the solution kills some

strains of coronavirus within 12 hours (but also admitted it hadn’t been tested on COVID-19).

Didn’t stop it immediately being put on sale on Facebook! Although, bless them, Facebook

does now put a warning up on their posts.

Unlike iron or zinc, silver is not a metal that has any function in the human body. Although

there are some occasional uses of silver in healthcare, for example in bandages applied

to wounds, but that doesn't mean it's effective to consume and it could cause some serious

side effects including kidney damage, seizures and argyria - a condition that makes your

skin turn blue.

Which is at least interesting.

Myth: if you have a runny nose, you probably just have a common cold.

The common cold and seasonal flu are viral infections that can have very similar, even

identical symptoms to COVID-19 including fever, cough and shortness of breath. Uncommon symptoms

include dizziness, nausea, vomiting and a runny nose. HOWEVER it’s important to bear

in mind that the virus presents differently in different people. This goes along with

the myth that ‘if you have the coronavirus, you’ll know’ because, no, you won’t.

Early on, infected people may show no symptoms at all.

And just because you don’t have the same symptoms as someone else who had coronavirus

doesn’t mean you don’t have it. If you feel unwell for any reason, you should take

precautions to avoid infecting others. The symptoms of coronavirus are not specific and