Multiple posts shared thousands of times on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube claim that salt is an effective remedy against the novel coronavirus.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, The post’s Indonesian-language status reads in part:\xa0\n\t“Coronavirus can be defeated with table salt., “We do not need a vaccine that will be brought by the Jewish or the Chinese., "This is not a hoax., “Please read till the end. This is from a friend who just got coronavirus., "“If you believe this you will get the benefit. If you do not it wont harm me.", “This just happened two days ago. He was still sleeping when a cough woke him up. The cough had quite a lot of phlegm, and he felt his breathing was rather disturbed. There was no any sign that he would get a cough before., “What did he do?, “1) Remove\xa0the phlegm.\n\t2) Drink\xa0a lot of warm water /1 glass.\n\t3) Take\xa0a little TABLE SALT to the tip of his tablespoon, put\xa0it into his mouth, let the salt dissolve in his mouth and\xa0swallow\xa0it little by little so the throat was filled with the salt taste.”, "The caption also says:\xa0“Thats my testimony. I hope WE CAN FIGHT THE CORONA Season WITH INEXPENSIVE SALT.”", The same claim has been shared more than 7,000\xa0times after it was published\xa0here,\xa0here, here\xa0and here on Facebook.\xa0 It was\xa0also shared\xa0here\xa0on Twitter., A similar claim was\xa0also shared on YouTube here\xa0and here., The claim is false; health experts have said there is no evidence that salt can treat the novel coronavirus disease., “Until now there is no evidence that NaCl / table salt can kill the virus causing COVID-19. That information is a hoax,” Dr Dirga Sakti Rambe, an internist and vaccinologist at Jakarta’s OMNI Pulomas Hospital, told AFP via WhatsApp on May 27, 2020., In response to a similar claim, Agit Sena Adisetiadi, Gadjah Mada University’s internal medicine specialist, also said: “Saltwater gargling cannot prevent Covid-19 infection.”, “There is no medical evidence that explains that this can help prevent Covid-19,” he said, as quoted in an article published\xa0in the university’s website., John Hopkins University’s School of Public Health debunked\xa0a similar claim about gargling with salt water, saying that “it has no direct effect on the virus.”, Below is a screenshot of the John Hopkins’ website:, The WHO also refuted\xa0another salt-related claim, that says regularly rinsing nose with saline helps prevent infection with the new coronavirus. “There is no evidence that regularly rinsing the nose with saline has protected people from infection with the new coronavirus,” it says., Below is a screenshot of the WHO’s website:, As of May 29, 2020, the WHO has said here\xa0there is no remedy for COVID-19., “While some western, traditional or home remedies may provide comfort and alleviate symptoms of mild COVID-19, there are no medicines that have been shown to prevent or cure the disease. WHO does not recommend self-medication with any medicines, including antibiotics, as a prevention or cure for COVID-19,” it said., , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
Health experts say there is no evidence salt can treat COVID-19 | AFP Fact Check