A woman and her four children drank their own urine after she received false information that this would prevent COVID-19.
The mother, who lives in London, told British health professionals that she followed the misleading advice in videos she received through the WhatsApp messaging service.
She said she drank the urine, which contains high concentrations of toxins, for four days, adding that she did not trust the coronavirus vaccine and preferred to rely on “traditional cures”.
TOLGA AKMEN / AFP via Getty Images
His case highlights fears among lawmakers around the world about how false information can impact the adoption of COVID vaccines.
The unidentified woman, who was speaking to researchers who interviewed London residents about the information and support they received after the first wave of the pandemic, said she believed Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda would launch a vaccine and that these drugs posed a danger to her and her family.
Gates does not have these plans and the COVID-19 vaccines, which have been administered to millions of people around the world, have proved safe and painless.
In the document prepared for the Westminster city council in central London, the researchers wrote about the “prevalence of alternative information shared via WhatsApp”.
They said, “This information often suggests false alternative treatments that have no scientific and empirical basis.
“One person we spoke to, for example, told us that his friend or relative, who is his primary source of information about COVID-19, forwards other people’s personal recommendations.
“Some of the videos she received discussed ingesting her own urine every morning as a cure for COVID-19. The participant said she and her children did this for four days.”
The survey, carried out by the organization Healthwatch Central West London, also found a “stigma associated with the contraction of the coronavirus” in some communities, which “added to the lack of confidence in the ‘official’ channels of information, presents a problem that deserves to be highlighted. . “
Newsweek contacted WhatsApp to request information about what it is doing to avoid sharing dangerous or misleading content.
WhatsApp, which belongs to Facebook, cannot block content based on the platform, but uses a combination of techniques to enforce policies and prevent abuse, including machine learning to deal with fake accounts.
The company made a series of changes to combat the spread of viral content on the platform, including reducing the number of people users can forward a message to and introducing “forwarded” and “highly forwarded” labels to highlight when a message was shared many times.
Last summer, poison control officials in the United States were forced to issue warnings about the inappropriate use of household bleach and other cleaning products amid reports that people were drinking disinfectant to prevent the virus.
Donald Trump had previously suggested that ingesting disinfectant could be an effective treatment for COVID-19.
The former president later denied any connection between his comments, which he described as “sarcastic”, and an increase in calls to poison centers across the country.
Newsweek, in partnership with NewsGuard, is dedicated to providing accurate and verifiable health information and vaccines. With the NewsGuard HealthGuard browser extension, users can verify that a website is a reliable source of health information. Visit the Newsweek VaxFacts website to learn more and download the HealthGuard browser extension.