Drinking a mix of baking soda and lemon as a hot tea cures COVID-19. Claims this “cure” has meant that there have been cases of COVID-19 in Israel, where the drink is popular.
A message circulating on WhatsApp in Nigeria claims that “lemon and bicarbonate” can cure Covid-19. It says the “information comes from Israel” where “this virus did not cause any death”., The message says to mix lemon and bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) as a “hot tea” to drink every afternoon. “The action of the lemon with hotter baking soda immediately kills the virus, completely eliminates it from the body.”, It claims the “remedy” is “why the People of Israel is relaxed about this virus”., Israel currently has more than 4,800 cases of Covid-19, with 18 deaths., Similar claims of the lemon and bicarbonate of soda “cure” for coronavirus are doing the rounds on Facebook., Is there any truth here?, “There is no scientific evidence to the claim,” Andrei Muchnik, spokesperson for the World Health Organization, told Africa Check., Tanimola Akande, professor of public health at the University of Ilorin in western Nigeria, also said the claim was false: “There is no documented scientific backing to this claim.”, Africa Check could also find no mention of bicarbonate of soda, baking soda or lemon juice in the WHO’s latest peer-reviewed scientific findings database on Covid-19., The WHO is clear: “There is no specific medicine recommended to prevent or treat the new coronavirus”. – Motunrayo Joel, , "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, lemon and baking soda mix doesn’t cure Covid-19 | Africa Check