Alcohol intake in an attempt to fight COVID-19: A medical myth in Iran

Aghababaeian, Hamidreza; Hamdanieh, Lara; Ostadtaghizadeh, Abbas

doi:10.1016/j.alcohol.2020.07.006

Cited by 57 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…A faulty understanding of effective treatments, on the one hand, and misconceptions about and the use of nonstandard and superstitious methods on the other, caused the consequences of this pandemic disease to vary and be somewhat unpredictable [ 4 ]. A recommendation to consume alcohol to fight COVID-19 was one of the irresponsible and superstitious suggestions made by some unprofessional people, which had deadly consequences around the world [ 5 ]. According to the Iranian Ministry of Health, more than 3000 people have been hospitalized for alcohol intoxication during the pandemic, 600 people have died [ 6 ].…”

Section: Dear Editormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Methanol is found naturally or unnaturally (as a counterfeit additive) at different levels in alcoholic beverages, and methanol intoxication was one of the most important causes of death due to poisoning with nonstandard alcoholic drinks in Iran, which was a problem that increased during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 7 , 8 ]. It is estimated that the total number of people killed by alcoholic beverages contaminated with methanol from Mar to Apr 2020 was about ten times greater than the same period in 2019 [ 5 ].…”

Section: Dear Editormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Increased production of illegal alcoholic beverages during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hamadan, Iran

et al. 2021

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Section: Dear Editormentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Dear Editormentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased production of illegal alcoholic beverages during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hamadan, Iran

et al. 2021

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“…In turn, the spread of COVID-19 rumors has led to deleterious consequences. In Iran for example, a myth that alcohol consumption could prevent or treat COVID-19 resulted in over 700 deaths related to methanol poisoning, with deaths attributed to methanol poisoning exceeding those attributed to COVID-19 in some provinces (Aghababaeian et al, 2020). Returning to mental health outcomes, the extent to which an individual has been exposed to, has shared, or believed in COVID-19 rumors has also been found to predict anxiety symptoms (Liu and Tong, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vulnerability to rumors during the COVID-19 pandemic: Results of a national survey

Saw

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, many rumors have emerged. Given prior research linking rumor exposure to mental well-being, we conducted a nation-wide survey to document the base rate of rumor exposure and factors associated with rumor vulnerability. Between March to July 2020, 1237 participants were surveyed on 5 widely-disseminated COVID-19 rumors (that drinking water frequently could be preventive, that eating garlic could be preventive, that the outbreak arose because of bat soup consumption, that the virus was created in an American lab, and that the virus was created in a Chinese lab). For each rumor, participants reported whether they had heard, shared or believed each rumor. Although most participants had been exposed to COVID-19 rumors, few shared or believed these. Sharing behaviors sometimes occurred in the absence of belief; however, education emerged as a protective factor for both sharing and belief. Together, our results suggest that campaigns targeting skills associated with higher education (e.g. epistemology) may prove more effective than counter-rumor messages.

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“…Meanwhile, in France early reports that nicotine may be protective against Covid-19 (Changeux, Amoura, Rey, & Miyara, 2020;Miyara et al, 2020) led to a rapid increase in purchasing of nicotine replacement therapy (Dalton, 2020). In Iran, cases of alcohol poisoning have been registered following unfounded suggestions that alcohol could treat or kill the virus causing Covid-19 (Aghababaeian, Hamdanieh, & Ostadtaghizadeh, 2020;Shokoohi, Nasiri, Sharifi, Baral, & Stranges, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceived risk factors for severe Covid-19 symptoms and their association with health behaviours: Findings from the HEBECO study

Herbeć¹,

Brown²,

Jackson³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: There remains uncertainty about Covid-19 risk factors. We examined UK adults’ risk perceptions for severe Covid-19 symptoms and whether engaging in concurrent health behaviours is associated with risk perceptions. Methods: Cross-sectional analysis of data from the HEBECO study where 2206 UK adults classified potential factors (age 70+, ethnic minority, medical comorbidities, vaping, smoking cigarettes, alcohol drinking, regular physical activity, being overweight, eating unhealthy foods, using nicotine replacement therapy – NRT, lower income, poor housing, being a keyworker) as either increasing, decreasing, or having no impact on severe Covid-19 symptoms. Logistic regressions examined whether engaging in health behaviours was associated with risk perceptions after adjusting for socio-demographic characteristics, health conditions and other behaviours.Results: The great majority (89-99%) of adults classified age 70+, having comorbidities, being a key worker, overweight, and from an ethnic minority as increasing the risk. People were less sure about alcohol drinking, vaping, and nicotine replacement therapy use (17.4-29.5% responding ‘don’t know’). Relative to those who did not, those who smoked tobacco, vaped and consumed alcohol had significantly (all p<0.015) higher odds (aORs=1.58 to 5.80) for classifying these behaviours as ‘no impact’ or ‘decreasing risk’, and lower odds (aORs=.25 to .72) for classifying as ‘increasing risk’. Similarly, eating more fruit and vegetables was associated with classifying unhealthy diet as ‘increasing risk’ (aOR=1.37,1.12-1.69), and exercising more with classifying regular physical activity as ‘decreasing risk’ (aOR=2.42,1.75-3.34). Conclusions: Risk perceptions for severe Covid-19 symptoms were lower for adults’ own health behaviours, evidencing optimism bias.Implications: These risk perceptions may form barriers to changing one’s own unhealthy behaviours or make one less responsive to interventions that refer to the risk of Covid-19 as a motivating factor. Thus, in some cases risk perceptions could help sustain unhealthy behaviours and exacerbate inequalities in health behaviours and outcomes.

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Alcohol intake in an attempt to fight COVID-19: A medical myth in Iran

Cited by 57 publications

References 4 publications

Increased production of illegal alcoholic beverages during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hamadan, Iran

Increased production of illegal alcoholic beverages during the COVID-19 pandemic in Hamadan, Iran

Vulnerability to rumors during the COVID-19 pandemic: Results of a national survey

Perceived risk factors for severe Covid-19 symptoms and their association with health behaviours: Findings from the HEBECO study

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