Pattaya residents fearful of Covid-19 are guzzling herbal remedies in the belief they will harden the immunity system to protect against the coronavirus.
Sales of herbal drinks made with fingerroot, ginger, lime and other natural ingredients are soaring amid the latest coronavirus wave despite overwhelming evidence and repeated warnings that they don’t prevent or cure Covid-19.
But a population that still divines lottery numbers from oddball trees and believes amulets can save them from car crashes can’t be convinced.
“Malee,” a sidecar vendor selling local herbs, said she travels around Pattaya selling the herbs to those who boil them to create herbal water, which they believe hardens the immune system. Hawking herbs is a big change from her previous work in a bar, she said.
Customer Pradit Martpang said he drinks ginger water instead of regular water, and has done so since the start of the latest Covid-19 outbreak. He gave ginger water to staff at massage parlors and bars as well.
He believes it works since he’s not been sick.
According to the British Journal of Nutrition, ginger water can help impede the growth of cancer cells because of the high-level antioxidants. It has also been shown to relieve inflammation and stimulate the Glutathione S-Transferase enzyme, which helps battle cancer.
The Thailand Center of Excellence for Life Sciences and Mahidol University earlier claimed that the active compounds found in fingerroot or Chinese ginger are effective in the fight against coronavirus. The claim was discredited by the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine just three weeks later.
