Member-only story
Optimize Me
There Are No Covid-19 ‘Miracle Cures’
Colloidal silver, essential oils, and vitamin supplements won’t save you from the novel coronavirus
Follow Elemental’s ongoing coverage of the coronavirus outbreak here.
Optimize Me is an Elemental column exploring (and fact-checking) the weirdest self-improvement trends. It comes out every Tuesday.
In the movie Contagion, Jude Law’s character, a popular conspiracy theory blogger, claims that an herbal supplement called forsythia will cure people of a deadly new virus. He films himself taking the homeopathic tincture after reporting he has a fever of 101 degrees, saying, “If I’m here tomorrow, you’ll know it works.” After Law lives, there is a run on pharmacies and health food stores as desperate people fight each other over the supplement. What Law doesn’t tell his millions of viewers is that — spoiler alert! — he was never actually infected with the virus, and he’s set up an arrangement to make millions of dollars off the sale of forsythia.
Contagion’s spookily prescient predictions for the current global pandemic unfortunately hold true for this storyline as well. YouTube and Instagram influencers, online purveyors of homeopathic teas and tinctures, and infamous bottom feeders like Alex Jones and Christian evangelist Jim Bakker are all trying to make a quick buck off people’s fears around the novel coronavirus, falsely claiming that their products can help treat or prevent Covid-19.
The good news is that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are on the case and have issued warning letters to seven companies hawking their holistic medicines as miracle cures. The false assertions include essential oils to protect against the novel coronavirus, herbal teas and diet regimens to fight infection, and colloidal silver supplements that purportedly can kill all seven human coronaviruses. Bakker was also sued by the state of Missouri for his misleading claims about colloidal silver, and Jones was served a cease and desist letter by the New York attorney general regarding his colloidal silver toothpaste.
Hopefully you already know this, but none of these products can help prevent or treat…
