From the United States to China, countries across the globe are in throes of the insidious coronavirus, with the number of cases growing exponentially and more than 5000 already perished worldwide due to the pernicious virus. Public health system across the world has been under considerable strain as the countries continue to wrangle with an unprecedented catastrophe.
However, despite the enormity of the crisis befalling the world, some western quacks seem to be exploiting the global trepidation as they palm off bizarre and outlandish remedies as reliable cures for the contagion that is rapidly spreading its ugly and venomous claws. Banking on the public anxiety, the western televangelists are advocating unfounded measures as a treatment for the novel coronavirus.
Here are some of the charlatans who are riding on the coronavirus scare and selling snake oil to the unsuspecting people in this hour of global crisis:
American televangelist Kenneth Copeland claims to cure people of coronavirus from the TV studio
Days before Donald Trump administration announced a national emergency in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, a video of American televangelist Kenneth Copeland claiming to cure the coronavirus victims remotely from his TV studio had gone viral. Copeland made the preposterous assertion on ‘Victory’ channel during a programme “Standing Against Coronavirus” in which he was seen asking his viewers to touch the television screen in order to receive the divine treatment.
Televangelist Jim Bakker endorses a mysterious silver solution as a panacea for coronavirus
In the show The Jim Bakker Show, the televangelist was seen endorsing the mitigating effects of a mysterious silver solution to cure the coronavirus contagion. Even as the scientists across the world are struggling to create an antidote for the virus, Bakker got a so-called ‘health expert’ on his show to promote the silver solution who fallaciously claimed that the solution was capable of ‘completely killing” the strains of coronavirus.
However, Bakker was served with a lawsuit by the Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt for misrepresentations about the effectiveness of ‘Silver Solution’ as a treatment for 2019 novel coronavirus.
American Radio host Alex Jones peddles toothpaste that he falsely claims to kill the coronavirus
Jones is accused of misleading his listeners with mistruths and dangerous lies about the treatment of coronavirus. On his Infowars program, Jones told his listeners that the silver-infused Superblue toothpaste being sold on his website has been verified by federal officials as stuff that kills the whole SARS-corona family at ‘point-blank range’, despite the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claiming otherwise.
Conservative Christian pastor claims only “sissies” and “pansies” wash their hands to prevent coronavirus
An orthodox pastor, Jonathan Shuttlesworth, a televangelist who co-founded Revival Today TV, strongly reprimanded churches who have suggested measures to prevent coronavirus and called them “sissies” and “pansies” who have been “neutered”. He contended that those who use hand sanitiser have “fake faith” and “no balls”.
Online healers charging £4 to £80 in Europe with the bogus claims of curing the coronavirus
A rampant online market for the sale of unfounded coronavirus solution is flourishing in Europe and USA as countries across the world are on a red alert to fight the novel virus. Fraudulent sellers are fleecing fraught consumers who are seeking medication for the virus online. Sellers on Fiverr assert that their methods such as ‘healing energy’, ‘bio magic principles’ and ‘Islamic method’ are able to cure the virus and are charging anywhere between £4 to £80 for the outlandish services.
