6 coronavirus health myths, fact checked
There are several things we know that can protect people from getting or transmitting the novel coronavirus: Washing your hands with soap for 20 seconds frequently, cleaning surfaces in your home with disinfecting products and social isolation. But according to posts all over social media, there are many more ways to protect yourself.
Well before the coronavirus was named a pandemic by the WHO, people started sharing all sorts of questionable advice on how to protect yourself from getting infected, ranging from misguided (like making your own hand sanitizer) to outright dangerous. It's reached the point where Facebook moved to ban any ads promoting fake coronavirus cures.
In an effort to get the facts straight, we are going to bust these common coronavirus myths that have taken over our feeds.
Myth 1: If you can hold your breath for 10 seconds, you don't have a coronavirus infection
The idea behind this myth is that if some is infected with coronavirus, by the time someone is having trouble breathing, 50% of their lungs will have pulmonary fibrosis -- a lung disease that causes irreversible scarring and hardening of the lung tissue.
There's a post that's been floating around the internet that states that if you can hold your breath for 10 seconds -- without feeling like you need to gasp for air or a tightness in your chest -- then you don't have pulmonary fibrosis and you're likely not infected with coronavirus.
This false myth has been shared all over social media, including by actress Debra Messing who posted it on a now-deleted Instagram story. There are even reports that the advice came from Stanford University, but that's completely false according to the med school
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https://www.cnet.com/news/6-coronavirus-health-myths-fact-checked/
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