A video of Nairobi governor Mike Sonko claiming the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends drinking alcohol to help prevent the new coronavirus is circulating online.
“I think from the research which has been conducted by the World Health Organization and various health organisations, it has been revealed that alcohol plays a very major role in killing the coronavirus or any sort of virus,” Sonko says in the\xa0press briefing., “If you take any sanitiser and check the alcoholic content, you will find each sanitiser has above 70 percent of alcohol content... Hennessy has some percentage of alcoholic content, that should act as a throat sanitiser. It kills the virus just in case the virus is held somewhere in the throat. So the Hennessy which are there, I am giving them to adults and not any person below 18-years of age”., “We will have some small bottles of Hennessy in the food packs that we will be giving to our people…” - Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko\n\t\tNote: WHO warns that drinking alcohol does not protect you against COVID-19 and can be dangerous pic.twitter.com/vuSuVAb8dy, The governor’s remarks came days after he was criticised online when photos of his food donation packages to poor city dwellers revealed that he had included bottles of Hennessy., On April 6, 2020, Kenya banned all movement\xa0in and out of Nairobi for a period of 21 days in a bid to contain the virus., Health warning, There is no research by the WHO indicating that drinking alcohol kills COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. On April 14, 2020, the agency released a statement\xa0encouraging governments to enforce measures to limit alcohol consumption., “WHO/Europe reminds people that drinking alcohol does not protect them from COVID-19,” the statement reads., The organisation also warned against excessive alcohol consumption during\xa0lockdown, which it says can exacerbate problems including domestic violence and mental health issues., Hennessy has also\xa0denied the Nairobi governor’s claims in a statement seen by AFP., “Our attention has been drawn to a video circulating across different media channels on Tuesday, April 14, 2020, alleging that the consumption of Hennessy helps to fight against COVID-19. Hennessy would like to stress that the consumption of our brand or any other alcoholic beverage does not protect against the virus,” reads the statement signed by Hennessy’s manager in Kenya, Anne-Claire Delamarre., Although the WHO recommends the use of alcohol-based sanitiser (also known as rubbing alcohol) to wash hands, the alcohol found in this product is different from that found in liquor, beer and wine., Serkalem Mekonnen, a poison specialist at the National Capital Poison Center in Washington DC, explains in this article that rubbing alcohol -- which can be toxic if inhaled -- contains isopropyl alcohol, while alcohol found in liquor is known as ethanol or ethyl alcohol., AFP has debunked other coronavirus related myths here., , 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.
Kenya governor quotes non-existent WHO research to defend alcohol donations | AFP Fact Check