The liquid squeezed from or a tea brewed of Siam weed, or Chromolaena odorata, is the cure for the novel coronavirus, according to Nigerian prophetess Dupe Oluwaniyi.
A viral video shows a Nigerian woman, who introduces herself as “prophetess Dupe Oluwaniyi”, saying Siam weed, or Chromolaena odorata, is the cure for the novel coronavirus., In the video, which has circulated on WhatsApp and Facebook, Oluwaniyi says she received the information by divine inspiration after praying about the Covid-19 pandemic., “It is the remedy to cure coronavirus. Share, let everybody know. You can find it anywhere that is very near to you. Nobody is asking you for money. Let everybody know that this is the cure for coronavirus and look for it. Let them search it, let it go viral,” she says., The woman says the weed should be squeezed to extract a liquid to be drunk as a remedy, or boiled and drunk warm, like tea., It is absolutely wrong to claim that any substance can cure any disease without rigorous scientific testing, Marycelin Baba, a professor of medical virology and microbiology at the University of Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria, told Africa Check., “The question to ask is: ‘Where is the scientific evidence?’ There is a long process the Siam weed needs to go through before it can be accepted as a cure. That process includes pre-clinical trials and clinical trials,” Baba said., As of 6 May 2020, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control had recorded over 3,145 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 103 deaths. According to the World Health Organization, there is still no cure for the disease., “While some western, traditional or home remedies may provide comfort and alleviate symptoms of Covid-19, there is no evidence that current medicine can prevent or cure the disease,” the WHO says., It notes that there are several ongoing clinical trials that include both western and traditional medicines, and promises to provide updates as soon as clinical findings are available. – Allwell Okpi, , "A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”. What should you do? First, dont delete!", Click on our guide for the steps you should follow., Publishers guide, Africa Check is a partner in Facebook’s third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media., The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it., You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how., Africa Check is working with the CoronaVirusFacts/DatosCoronaVirus Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 fact-checkers fighting misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic., Learn more about the alliance here., , © Copyright Africa Check 2020. Read our republishing guidelines.\xa0You may reproduce this piece or content from it for the purpose of reporting and/or discussing news and current events. This is subject to: Crediting Africa Check in the byline, keeping all hyperlinks to the sources used and adding this sentence at the end of your publication: “This report was written by Africa Check, a non-partisan fact-checking organisation. View the original piece on their website", with a link back to this page., We depend on voluntary donations to run this site. Please help us to keep public figures accountable by supporting the project., Find out more, For democracy to function, public figures need to be held to account for what they say. The claims they make need to be checked, openly and impartially. Africa Check is an independent, non-partisan organisation which assesses claims made in the public arena using journalistic skills and evidence drawn from the latest online tools, readers, public sources and experts, sorting fact from fiction and publishing the results., , Get a weekly dose of facts, straight to your inbox.
No proof siam weed cures coronavirus, as Nigerian prophetess claims | Africa Check