now how to sift accurate information
from misinformation is becoming one of
the challenges of this crisis isn't it
and here's one example we looked at
Google Trends earlier one of the top
searches was ibuprofen and that's
connected to a statement from two days
back where the French Health Ministry
suggested that that anti-inflammatory
painkiller could worsen the effects of
the corona virus the story has been very
heavily shared so in the UK is this
whatsapp message which says from an NHS
colleague we've just been sent a medical
alert that no one is to use
anti-inflammatories so is this true
well we contacted Kalpana sabapathy a
doctor at the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine to help us
certainly in the first instance
paracetamol is recommended any way to
reduce a temperature or for aches and
pains headaches that sort of thing I
don't think their evidence actually is
strong enough for us to start saying
that ibuprofen should never be used but
certainly I think erring on the side of
caution in the context of kovat and so
many unknowns then certainly it would be
safer to stick to paracetamol as as the
first first-line and does that caution
also apply to other anti-inflammatories
potentially yes but like I said there is
actually no established evidence that
there is a problem with ibuprofen and
kovat 19 or even really with respiratory
infections there have been studies that
suggest that that may be the case but
it's not established by any means here's
something else we've seen lots of
messages about suggesting that eating
garlic helps protect you from this virus
is it true or we won't be entirely
surprised to know the World Health
Organization has responded to this
saying garlic does have anti microbial
properties but there's no evidence that
eating it will protect anyone from this
coronavirus I repeat no evidence
whatsoever
next is the issue of alcohol as a
disinfectant lots of you will use gel
and sanitizers and they must have a
certain alcohol content to work in fact
to be effective they need to contain at
least 60% alcohol and of course every
bottle of alcohol you can buy in the
shops to
drink doesn't get close to 60% now some
people have been sharing information
suggesting putting alcohol bought the
drink all over your body can kill the
coronavirus is that true well the answer
is no again the World Health
Organization says it will have no impact
on the virus particularly a virus that's
entered your body it adds that actually
putting alcohol over your body can be
harmful to your eyes and to your mouth
the next one is face masks there are
huge social pressures in some countries
to buy these and wear them here are some
experts on what that will achieve for an
environment where everybody else is
wearing a face masks and you're not then
it may make you feel vulnerable because
you feel that you don't have the
protection everyone else does but
logically if you're not close to people
they're not coughing and sneezing on you
then the face mask isn't necessary one
of the problems if lots of people who
don't need face masks are using face
muscle stockpiling them it means that
there aren't enough face masks available
where they're really needed for people
like health care workers who are on the
frontline and dealing with suspect or
confirmed coronavirus cases now the big
tech companies Facebook Twitter Google
are saying they're doing everything they
can to curb misinformation on their
platforms but to be clear the simplest
thing to do if you want to be sure about
that this information is good it's go to
the NHS website also go to the World
Health Organization website and there's
also a huge amount of information on the
BBC News website as well and I guess
there's one bit of advice that everyone
is agree on which is wash your hands for
at least 20 seconds a number of times
per day