Tuesday, March 26

Anti-vaccines are promoting another new Covid ‘cure’: drinking urine. But they are not the only obstacles to ending the pandemic | Arwa mahdawi


I I’m starting to think that common sense really isn’t that common after all – we live in extremely stupid times. Addendum 874: US anti-vaccines now urge people to drink their own urine to fight coronavirus. Over the weekend, Christopher Key, leader of a covid-19 vaccine group called “Vaccine Police,” videos posted online extolling the health benefits of what he described as “urine therapy.” According to the wizard of wee, there is “tons and tons of research … [and] peer-reviewed published articles on urine ”; So if you do your own urine search, you will find out that it is God’s antidote to Covid-19. “This vaccine is the worst bioweapon I’ve ever seen,” Key said. “I drink my own urine!”

That’s not the only questionable thing it does. Key was recently arrested for refuse to wear a mask and filming proceedings during a court hearing. The reason you were in court? He was arrested in April for refusing to wear a mask at a Whole Foods store. In August he made headlines for suggesting that pharmacists must be executed to administer vaccines against the coronavirus; in December he also went on a road trip across the U.S. with a fake license plate and firearms, on a mission to arrest a Democratic governor for vaccination mandates. Busy man, our Mr. Key! I can’t help but think that if his name were Mohammed, his antics would have already locked him up in Guantanamo Bay.

Key’s “urine therapy” is far from the only experimental – and highly dubious – “cure” for Covid to be promoted during the pandemic. We all remember the comments of the former US president about the benefits of injecting bleach. Last year we saw a prolonged episode of ivermectin-mania. Now, along with urine, the right wing seems to be obsessed with Viagra and Colloidal Silver. Tucker Carlson of Fox News, who has repeatedly questioned the efficacy and safety of Covid vaccines, recently dedicated a part of his program to promoting the potential of Viagra as a possible cure. Carlson seized the story of a British nurse reportedly recovering from a Covid-19 coma, after being given a dose of Viagra, to sing the praises of the little blue pill. “There is something [Viagra] does not heal? Carlson joked. Yes, I’m afraid it doesn’t seem to cure stupidity.

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Speaking of which, conservative media personality Candace Owens recently told her followers on social media that she takes a “teaspoon a day” of colloidal silver, a product that has also been touted as a Covid cure by people like Alex Jones, Founder of Infowars. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you this, but there is no evidence that colloidal silver can help with Covid. Conversely, taking too much can permanently turn your skin blue, and in rare cases, it can even kill you. (I can never resist the opportunity to make my hero Wilkie Collins great, so I urge you to read his underrated novel Poor Miss Finch, about a blind woman who falls in love with identical twins, one of whom turns blue after trying to heal. his epilepsy with silver. The novel won’t cure Covid, but it may provide temporary relief from existential boredom.)

The amount of misinformation about Covid cures is very depressing, and it is important that we hold people accountable for spreading dangerous falsehoods and undermining trust in the vaccine. Still, let’s be clear: The biggest obstacle to ending this pandemic is not crackpots like Key and Owens. The obstacle is rich countries that have been stockpiling vaccines, and Pfizer and Moderna, which have been slow to license their vaccine technology (developed with taxpayer money) to poor countries. The fact that Big Pharma is making billions from a public health crisis is inconceivable. I am very much in favor of vaccines, but my enthusiasm for boosters is running out. The thought of having to get a fourth injection soon, while much of the world still cannot access a first dose, makes me sick. If only we had a vaccine for greed.

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