Amid the raging third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a video of an unidentified man claiming that snorting of dried ginger or saunth will kill the Omicron variant is viral on social media. Netizens have further misidentified the man as neurologist Dr Sushil Razdan from Jammu and Kashmir or Dr Zarir Udwadia in separate viral messages.
BOOM reached out to both Dr Razdan and Dr Udwadia who clarified that the man in the video is not them and also distanced themselves from the ginger powder cure suggested in the video.
The video is viral on WhatsApp, where the unidentified man claims that inhaling ginger powder will kill the mucus and infections that are present in the nostrils. He can be heard saying, "The reason is very scientific, dried ginger is highly alkaline and it has a high pH value. When you put it inside all the mucus and the acid... the infections which you have are all acidic and have low pH. They get killed instantly. As you know, the virus COVID and other virus travels through the nostrils, through the mucus into the throat and then possibly onto the lungs. So from the nostrils itself where we ingest it, if we take care of it, we'll be perfectly fine. So please circulate this in the public interest too, as many people can benefit from it."
The video is being shared on social media platforms with the caption, "Sharing excerpts from presentation by Dr Zarir Udwadia, most respected chest physician in the country via WhatsApp". Several messages have also misidentified the man as Dr Sushil Razdan. "Dr Sushil Razdan is a famous neurologist of India. He is suggesting Ayurvedic method for covid." (sic.)
Click here to view an archive of the post.
A post on Facebook uploaded the same video with a caption saying, "Dr. Sushil Razdan is a top neurologist from Jammu. How to avoid Omricon using ginger powder."
Click here to view the post.
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Fact Check
BOOM did a keyword search with Dr Zarir Udwadia and found his image on a website TB-RePORT International. We then reached out to Dr Udwadia, who confirmed to us that the person in the video is not him and provided a link to his original talk on the Omicron variant. In the video, Udwadia does not mention ginger powder inhalations as a remedy of COVID.
The video of Dr Zarir Udwadia on COVID-19 Omicron variant can be seen below.
Further, BOOM reached out to Dr Sushil Razdan about the video who said that he has no connection with the viral video or the remedy suggested in it. Below is Dr Razdan's video debunking the claim misidentifying him and the viral message.
BOOM however could not independently verify the identity of the man seen in the viral video.
Additionally we also reached out to Mumbai Cyber Cell's DCP Dr Rashmi Karandikar about the viral video. Karandikar said, "It's a fake video which is spreading rumours. We have already written a letter to WhatsApp authority about the removal of this video from its platform."
Can Snorting Ginger Be A Cure For COVID-19?
We did a keyword search about it on Google and found WHO executive board president Dr Patrick Amoth's tweet posted on August 8, 2020.
According to The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's article, "Consuming ginger—whether by eating ginger root, drinking ginger tea, taking ginger capsules, or sniffing or adding ginger powder to your food—will not prevent or fight a coronavirus infection. Viral infections spread in your body when the virus enters your cells and makes copies of itself and then those copies enter new cells and repeat the process. Ginger will not destroy the virus in your body or stop the copying process. There is no evidence that ginger or other dietary supplements can "boost" or "supercharge" your immune system to protect you from infections. There are no foods, drinks, or supplements that will protect you from COVID-19."
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