Coronavirus (Covid-19) has caused widespread panic around the world, amid inaccurate rumors about ways to prevent infection that has killed thousands to date.
Health experts warn that many measures that people resort to are unhelpful, such as wearing masks or eating certain foods and plants, such as ginger and garlic.
In an interview with Sky News Arabia, an infectious disease consultant, Jihad Saleh Abdullah, said wearing a mask does not work, because the virus is transmitted only through respiratory droplets.
He added that if there is a sick person who sneezes, coughs or speaks loudly, the spray that spreads from him spreads for a distance of only one meter.
Moreover, this virus spreads if it falls on a sick person's nose, eye or mouth, or if it falls on a specific surface and is then contacted by a healthy person.
In the event that the sick person is a meter away, the healthy person does not benefit from wearing a muzzle, and therefore experts recommend that wearing the muzzle be restricted to those who deal with patients or take care of them, without talking about contamination of the muzzle shortly after wearing it.
Abdullah stressed that the coronavirus, which has infected more than 120,000 people in the world until now, does not fly in the air. It cannot pass to the healthy person if the patient sneezeswithin a meter.
He pointed out that the majority of those affected by the disease are elderly people, that is, those who are over seventy and eighty years of age, and therefore, 80 percent of infections are mild and do not warrant placing under intensive care.
He added that most carriers of the virus remain in isolation, so they do not transmit the infection to others, and when the body becomes free of the virus, they leave the health facilities.
He reported that young children or those under the age of 18 showed remarkable immunity against an illness, and they showed only very mild symptoms, but schools were closed because of overcrowding and the potential for transmission of infection significantly.
While some recommend eating foods that are said to boost the body’s immunity, the Infectious Diseases Consultant explained that this matter is healthy, but there is no scientific basis for the likelihood of foods such as garlic or others contributing to the prevention of the coronavirus.
In light of the inaccurate expectations that the virus will subside with the approaching summer and the rise in temperature, Abdullah said that "corona is still new and we do not know much about it, and therefore, much of what is circulating about it remains within the circle of speculation only."
