False 'Corona Cures' Circulating Online Are A Threat To Public Health

Social media have been flooded with posts recommending tonic water and zinc as a cure for coronavirus infection, as the drink contains quinine. However, there is currently no clinically proven evidence that such treatments work. This was noted by AFP Fact Check which has debunked more than 330 examples of false or misleading information about the novel coronavirus crisis.

Thus "the claim is false; quinine in tonic water is too diluted to have any effect, and there are no drugs proven to cure the disease," mentioned AFP Fact Check report.

It “seems like a made up home remedy for a medicine that is currently under clinical trials,” said Brandon Brown, a professor at University of California. "Quinine, along with its synthetic relatives chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, are chemical compounds normally used as anti-malarial drugs. They are not proven to work as treatments for COVID-19, nor approved by the FDA as such," informed AFP.