Authors
A self-taught social media maverick, Saurabh realised the power of social media early on and began following and analysing false narratives and ‘fake news’ even before he entered the field of fact-checking professionally. He is fascinated with the visual medium, technology and politics, and at Newschecker, where he leads social media strategy, he is a jack of all trades. With a burning desire to uncover the truth behind events that capture people's minds and make sense of the facts in the noisy world of social media, he fact checks misinformation in Hindi and English at Newschecker.
Hindu Mahasabha president Swami Chakrapani claimed that cow urine and cow dung can cure coronavirus.
Cow urine, one of the most debated topics in India, is again making the headlines as Hindu Mahasabha president Swami Chakrapani Maharaj has claimed that Cow urine and dung can cure coronavirus. There are several research reports on the merits and demerits of cow urine and cow dung but concrete evidence is yet to be obtained for either.
Fact Check/Verification
In the current scenario almost all countries, either affected by Novel Coronavirus or not, are working towards finding a permanent solution to this deadly virus. So far, 3 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported in India while in Indian state Kerala, coronavirus outbreak has been declared a state disaster.
While the statement made by Swami Chakrapani Maharaj was backed by no proof but theoretical beliefs, we tried searching if cow urine and dung can indeed cure Novel coronavirus. In our investigation, we first checked the official website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, but we couldn’t find any such information on the Ministry’s website. We found an advisory issued by the Government of India in 2013 that extensively talks about one of the viruses from the same family.
The advisory was issued for Haj Pilgrims in 2013 in the wake of 96 confirmed cases of Middle East coronavirus (MERS-CoV) and 47 deaths because of the outbreak in 2012-13. The advisory talks about the preventive measure and cures of the virus but carries no mention of the cow urine.
We further went on to research more about the medicinal use of cow urine and dung. We found research published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information. The research talks about the benefits and medicinal use of cow dung and urine but like GOI’s 2012-13 advisory, this research also carries no mention of cow urine or dung can cure coronavirus.
As we searched further, we found a report published by Times Of India which negates the claim made by Swami Chakrapani. The report not just rubbishes the claim made by Swami Chakrapani but also questions the intention behind making such a baseless claim.
We also found a report published by Gulf News which lists Chakrapani’s claim as an unusual treatment for the coronavirus along with the other items.
We checked the Twitter handles of Indian Health Ministry and Press Information Bureau for their advisories on the issue and what all we found has no mention of the cow urine or dung.
We also checked the websites of some other global health agencies but we couldn’t find any mention of cow urine or dung curing the coronavirus.
The World Health Organization has rubbished many such claims in a Twitter thread made by its official handle.
However, according to media reports, a coronavirus patient has been cured in Thailand and the cure to this virus has been reportedly found by the researchers in Thailand.
Conclusion
In our verification, we found several media reports, research reports, and advisories that talk about prevention and cure of the disease but there was no mention of cow urine and dung in these reports hence the claim made by the Hindu Mahasabha president Swami Chakrapani is ‘Misleading’.
Result: Misleading
Our Sources
Media Reports
Google Search
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Authors
A self-taught social media maverick, Saurabh realised the power of social media early on and began following and analysing false narratives and ‘fake news’ even before he entered the field of fact-checking professionally. He is fascinated with the visual medium, technology and politics, and at Newschecker, where he leads social media strategy, he is a jack of all trades. With a burning desire to uncover the truth behind events that capture people's minds and make sense of the facts in the noisy world of social media, he fact checks misinformation in Hindi and English at Newschecker.
