A message claiming that Israel has not reported any deaths and confirmed cases of coronavirus is making rounds in the social media, mainly on WhatsApp and facebook. The message claims, "The cure for the Covid 19 virus or the way to eliminate it was achieved. Information comes from Israel that this virus did not cause any death."
The message also prescribes in what it calls a recipe for cure. The two ingredients that can ward of coronavirus are lemon and bicarbonate. Mix and drink as hot tea every afternoon. The action of lemon with hot baking soda immediately kills the virus, claims the message.
Fake news
This is fake news as Israel has recorded 3,035 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 12 deaths so far. There is no truth in the messages making rounds on social media, without any scientific proof. In a similar circulation of fake news, at least 300 were killed and more than 1000 were hospitalized with life threatening complications after people in Iran drank methanol-based alcohol.
The news circulating on social media had claimed that alcohol can ward off coronavirus, but as Iran does not sell alcohol and it is banned, people resorted to bootlegged drinks and ended up either dying or with serious health implications at a time when hospitals are struggling with insufficient infrastructure to treat coronavirus patients.
Allegedly this fake news was generated from a misinformation of a report that claimed that washing hands with alcohol-based hand sanitizer regularly can keep coronavirus away. Another fake report had claimed that drinking whisky had cured many people of COVID-19.
Israel is working on vaccine which will take time
In fact, another news of Israel approving the vaccine for coronavirus also had become viral. The image claiming vaccine for coronavirus was posted on Facebook on March 14 and claimed that soon it will also be available in the US.
Meanwhile, in reality, Institute for Biological Research in Israel is developing a vaccine for coronavirus. But to be approved as a vaccine for the public use, it will have to undergo months of trial and advanced experiments. One of the former vaccine evaluators of Health Ministry in Israel had said that the development process itself might take up to 18 months and that it would be risky to rush the process.
Another state-funded Migal Galilee Research Institute is also developing a vaccine for coronavirus. The Institute was already developing a vaccine against avian coronavirus affecting poultry after research of four years. Thus, the top institutes in Israel too are developing a vaccine. And the rumour of lemon and bicarbonate warding off coronavirus is completely fake.
