*Preventive Measures Against COVID-19: Facts and Fiction*

```A bit lengthy but informative```

Just few days before the complete lockdown of Lagos, I went shopping to stock up my house with food stuffs. After buying everything, I remembered I had finished my favourite spice (garlic and ginger) which I use in boiling meat. I approached my favourite aboki with the hope of buying my regular package. I greeted him and told him to give me the regular (garlic and ginger), only for him to smile and reply in his Hausa accent that "eberything e Don pinish" I was suprised, because I know the quantity he usually stores to sell afterwards. I proceeded to ask him why the complete sale of these herbs. He replied by saying "pifu dey use am kill corona, e good por body" "Me sef don keep small por myself". In the end he handed me few cloves of garlic with a facial expression like someone who just saved my life. I received the herb and proceeded to someone else to buy at a much higher price, thereafter I went home. It all didn't make sense to me until I opened my Facebook and Whatsapp messages days later. Alas, it dawned on me!!! as I saw the messages “eating garlic kills corona virus!!!”

The 2019-nCoV, or simply put Covid-19 is an illness caused by a new strain of corona virus. Before the World Health Organization declared it as a global pandemic, news about the highly communicable disease did spread like wild fire. These news flew from different directions with most of it having no credibility given the source it came from. This occurrence left a huge amount of people confused and unable to differentiate between fact and fiction.

Below I would give facts which I have drawn up from different credible websites which include the W.H.O, E.C.D.C, N.C.D.C and C.D.C.

The origin of the Novel Coronavirus among humans, as a fact has been traced to human contact with infected animals. Some of these animals which include bats and many more are considered natural hosts of these viruses. This fact best refutes the fictitious belief that the corona virus was created as a biological weapon in the laboratory to harm and kill human populations. It also best refutes the fictitious belief that corona virus originated from radiation that is emitted from 5G technology.

The rapid spread of Covid-19 among humans also created a situation whereby different preventive measures were flying about. Most of these preventive measures had no scientific backing regardless, many humans still welcomed and practiced them without questioning their authenticity. These preventive measures included

• Drinking of sodium bicarbonate mixed with hot water to flush down the Corona virus from the throat into the stomach.

This fictitious action has been adopted by many people in underdeveloped nation as a way of preventing the virus from entering the lungs when inhaled. Unfortunately this action could lead to more severe consequence such as kidney and bladder failure, and to cap it all, drinking this concoction does not still prevent humans from contracting the virus.

• Consumption of Garlic prevents contracting Corona virus

According to the W.H.O consumption of Garlic has no proven record to prevent an individual from contracting the corona virus, although it is considered healthy when consumed. My aboki was wrong because it does not kill corona virus.

• Exposure to temperatures of more than 25 degree Celsius can prevent one from Corona virus.

According to the W.H.O, exposure to temperatures of more than 25 degrees Celsius does not kill the corona virus. What has been recommended is constant hand washing with soap and water when they are physically dirty, and usage of alcohol based hand sanitizer to run hands when they aren't physically dirty.

• Corona virus is in the air we breathe and travels by wind.

The popular fictitious belief that corona virus is carried about in the air has led several people to start wearing face mask. This action according to them prevents them from inhaling the virus. However according to credible sources. Corona virus specifically Covid-19 can only travel as far as 1 meter in the air due to its size. Thereafter it settles on surfaces. Hence it is advisable that only those who are infected, and those caring for infected persons should wear face masks.However recent discoveries by American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention have shown that some people might not show any symptom when infected. Hence it is advisable that everyone wears a cloth down face covering (not necessarily face mask) and leave behind the N95 face masks due to its scarcity and its relevance to health care workers.


In conclusion, to prevent the constant confusion of facts with fiction, especially when it comes to preventing oneself against the virus, it is advisable to fact check, by this all information you get should be subject to scrutiny. This would be achieved by verifying these information from credible sources which include specialists in the area of medicine and websites such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), NCDC, ECDE etc.

Thanks for reading till the end

If you find this nice, please support me to win Covid-19 essay challenge, I need your *like* to become part of the winners. The process might look tedious but I assure you it won't take more than 150 seconds.
1. Click on this link https://myschool.ng/news/covid-19-stay-at-home-essay-challenge-has-begun-join-here?c_page=34#comment_posts
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And that's all.

Thanks in advance�.

God heal our land