Viewpoint: Watch out for ‘charlatans and scammers’ touting coronavirus cures

essential oils

The coronavirus pandemic has the whole world’s attention. For now, there’s no treatment and definitely no cure for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

That hasn’t stopped charlatans and scammers to claim that they have treatments, and to offer them for sale.

Let’s look at a few marketers who have gotten the attention of regulators just this past week. In the U.S., the FTC and the FDA announced that they just took the following action:

“The FTC and FDA have jointly issued warning letters to seven sellers of unapproved and misbranded products, claiming they can treat or prevent the Coronavirus. The companies’ products include teas, essential oils, and colloidal silver.”

I can’t know for certain which of the people selling these products truly believe they have a treatment for COVID-19 and which of them are knowingly lying. But consumers should beware: false claims will continue to appear as long as there’s money to be made.

No one has a treatment for coronavirus infection. The WHO has a site up now, which I recommend, that dispels many of the myths. I’ll close with a quote from that site:

“To date, there is no specific medicine recommended to prevent or treat the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV).”

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