Hi everyone

I'm Dr. Seema Yasmin and today, I am debunking some

of the most common myths about the coronavirus pandemic.

Perhaps, unsurprisingly, the majority of rumors

about COVID-19 circulating on the internet,

focus on preventing and treating the disease.

A few of these focus on things to eat and drink.

One viral post recommends sipping water

at least every 15 minutes to make sure

that the mouth and throat never get dry.

This post says, Even if the virus gets into your mouth,

drinking water or other liquids will wash them down

through your throat and into the stomach.

Once there, your stomach acid will kill all the virus.

Now obviously, hydration is imporant to health,

but there is no evidence whatsoever that drinking water

will protect you from the coronavirus

or flush the infection out of your body.

I've also seen this myth that if you eat enough garlic,

you can stave away COVID-19.

Some posts suggest brewing a tea out of garlic

and drinking that to prevent COVID-19.

And, that sounds disgusting.

Garlic is a well-known home remedy for colds and flus,

and it does contain some anti-microbial compounds,

but the World Health Organization is saying

that there's no evidence to say

that garlic can prevent COVID-19.

There are also myths about how to tell

if you have the disease.

A couple of these fake home testing methods

have been circulating on Facebook, Twitter,

and on WhatsApp, including my own family's WhatsApp group,

and they proport to be from experts at Stanford University

or from Taiwanese health experts, and they are not.

One of the myths is that you can tell if you

have COVID-19 by holding your breath for 10 seconds.

This myth says that if you can take a deep breath,

hold it for 10 seconds without coughing or discomfort,

that means that you don't have COVID-19.

Now, the thing is, the disease does affect the lungs.

It can cause cough and shortness of breath.

But while deep breathing exercises are not a bad idea,

they're not a way of diagnosing yourself at home.

Another misconception that's really confusing

is that the existing pneumonia vaccines

protect against COVID-19.

Now the thing is, pneumonia is a lung condition

that can be caused by many different types

of bacteria and viruses.

Those existing pneumonia vaccines don't directly protect

against the new coronavirus because nothing's

been developed for that new infection yet.

But the thing is, it's a really good idea to

be up-to-date on your pneumonia shots

because if you're protected against all

the other causes of pneumonia,

you're actually at lower risk of getting COVID-19.

That's because one chest infection with any bug

leaves you much more vulnerable to getting

a second or even a third chest infection.

One of the myths out there is that young people

are not at risk of contracting COVID-19

and it makes sense that that mythi is out there

because early on in the epidemic,

we were seeing the worst cases of illness in older people.

But the evidence shows that younger people

are just as likely to contract this disease

as older people, and as the pandemic grows,

and we get more data, we're seeing that younger kids

and teens can get really sick with this virus.

In fact, here in California, we've seen reports

that a 17-year old may have died from complications

related to COVID-19 and I know there

were so many news reports saying that younger people

don't get sick and don't wind up in the hospital.

But new data from the CDC shows that people

under the age of 54 make up a significant proportion

of those who wind up in hospital with COVID-19.

The Director General of the World Health Organization

warned young people about COVID-19 with this message:

You're not invisible.

This virus could put you in hospital for weeks,

or even kill you.

I know this part is scary and not what we want to hear,

but there is some new evidence that,

especially with babies and younger kids

and those who have pre-existing medical conditions,

they can wind up more severely sick with COVID-19

than school-aged children.

And even with no symptoms or mild sympoms,

kids and younger people can still spread this disease.

That's why we're saying this isn't the time

to have a regular spring break.

We have to do physical distancing, aggressively,

to stop the spread of disease.

Another rumor that's making the rounds is that

if you have a runny nose, it means you don't have COVID-19.

This is a new virus so we're learning more about it day

by day, but as the pandemic grows

and we're getting more data about symptoms,

we're seeing that many people do have a runny nose

and it can also cause a productive cough.

That's what we call it when somebody has a cough

that brings up sputum, also known as phloem.

Of course, the only true way of knowing

if you have COVID-19 is to get a test for the disease.

Other myths are all about the relationship

between temperature and the virus.

You may have even seen rumors

that drinking hot water prevents COVID-19

or that blasting a blow dryer into your mouth

will kill the virus.

There's even one my that goes as far as saying

that coronavirus hates the sun.

There's a poster going around that says the virus

is killed in temperatures

of 77 degrees Fahrenheit or greater.

But just look at Singapore, where more than 700 people

became infected while the temperatures were,

on average, like 88 degrees Fahrenheit

and it was really humid.

The reason I think this myth is getting traction

is because viral infections do have seasonality.

Some of them spread during winter months,

some during summer months.

The issue here, though, is that this is a new virus.

It doesn't have seasonality yet.

It is spreading like wildfire through all of us

because we are not immune, we haven't been exposed before.

So we don't exactly know what kind of seasonality

the new coronavirus will have if it becomes established.

You may have seen the myth that gargling with salt water

will prevent infection with the new coronavirus.

Salt water gargling is a well-known home remedy

for when you have a cold or flu,

and while it can give some people symptom relief

of a scratch throat, it doesn't treat or prevent COVID-19.

Another myth, antibiotics can treat COVID-19.

Taking antibiotics for COVID-19 might sound like a good idea

because antibiotics are used for treating chest infections.

But they only work when they're used against bacteria,

a completely different kind of bug to what causes COVID-19,

which is caused by a virus.

To treat the new coronavirus, you need anti-viral medicines.

There aren't any right now that are approved or proven

to work against COVID-19, but some are being tested.

Another myth that I keep seeing

is that if you have COVID-19,

you shouldn't take ibuprofen.

There's so much confusion out there

about whether COVID-19 patients

should or shouldn't take ibuprofen.

This all started when the French Minster For Health tweeted

that patients with COVID-19 should stay away from ibuprofen.

But it's unclear where

the minister's information first came from.

And then, there was a letter in a medical journal.

So a letter is different to a peer-reviewed study.

The letter was wondering whether,

because of the way ibuprofen works,

it could broadly make COVID-19 worse.

Ibuprofen is the medicine from a class of drugs known

as NSAIDs or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Both the European's medicine agency

and the World Health Organization have come forward to say

there's no reason to stop using ibuprofen

for COVID-19 patients and in fact,

those medicines can be useful in treating the fever

and aches and pains associated with the disease.

And the other concern here is that when people see

these rumors circulating, they may already

be taking ibuprofen or an NSAID for

an existing medical condition and will get scared

and suddenly stop taking the medicine.

It's really important if you're already taking a medicine

that you don't stop taking it without first talking

to your health care provider.

That said, it's always a good idea to check in

with your health care provider.

That can be a doctor, a nurse,

or a pharmacist about any medication you're thinking

of taking to treat COVID-19.

I think it's really easy to look back at those myths

and think, I would never fall for that.

But in the face of so much fear and uncertainty,

even the smartest people can fall for false information.

Here are some quick tips for how to spot myths online.

If the information you're seeing is presented

in a way that's super sensationalized

and trying to stoke emotion,

then that's one warning sign that this could be a myth.

Always try and trace the information back

to its original source.

If you can't do that or if the original source looks shady,

then it's likely to be a myth.

Always look out for credible sources of health information,

such as the CDC and the World Health Organization.

I hope I've cleared up some myths about COVID-19.

If you have questions or concerns,

you can leave them in the comments

or reach me on my Twitter or Instagram.

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