I am dr Seema Yasmin and today I am debunking some of the most common myths about the coronavirus pandemic.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of rumors about Covid 19 circulating on the internet focused on preventing and treating the disease.

A few of these focused on things to eat and drink one viral post recommend sipping water at least every 15 minutes to make sure that the mouth and throat never get dry.

This post says, even if the virus gets into your mouth drinking water or other liquids will wash them down through your throat and into the stomach once they're, your stomach acid will kill all the virus.

Now, obviously, hydration is important to health, but there is no evidence whatsoever that drinking water will protect you from the coronavirus or flush the infection out of your body.

I've also seen this myth that if you eat enough garlic, you can stave away Covid 19.

Some posts suggest brewing the tea out of garlic and drinking that to prevent covid 19 and that sounds disgusting.

Garlic is a well known home remedy for colds and flues and it does contain some antimicrobial compounds.

But the World Health Organization is saying that there's no evidence to say that garlic can prevent covid 19.

There are also myths about how to tell if you have the disease.

A couple of these fake home testing methods have been circulating on facebook twitter and on WhatsApp, including my own family's, what's that group and they purport to be from experts at Stanford University or from Taiwanese health experts.

And they are not.

One of the myths is that you can tell if you have Covid 19 by holding your breath for 10 seconds.

This myth says that if you can take a deep breath, hold it for 10 seconds without coughing or discomfort, that means that you don't have Covid 19.

Now, the thing is, the disease does affect the lungs.

It can cause cough and shortness of breath.

But while deep breathing exercises are not a bad idea, there not a way of diagnosing yourself at home.

Another misconception that's really confusing is that the existing pneumonia vaccines protect against COVID-19.

Now, the thing is, pneumonia is a lung condition that can be caused by many different types of bacteria and viruses.

Those existing pneumonia vaccines don't directly protect against the new coronavirus because nothing has been developed for that new infection yet.

But the thing is, it's a really good idea to be up to date on your pneumonia shots because if you're protected against all the other causes of pneumonia, you're actually at lower risk of getting covid 19.

That's because one chest infection with any bug leaves you much more vulnerable to getting a second or even a third chest infection.

One of the myths out there is that young people are not at risk of contracting covid 19.

And it makes sense that that myth is out there because early on in the epidemic we were seeing the worst cases of illness in older people.

But the evidence shows that younger people are just as likely to contract this disease as older people.

And as the pandemic grows and we get more data, we're seeing that younger kids and teens can get really sick with this virus.

In fact, here in California, we've seen reports that a 17 year old may have died from complications related to Covid 19.

And I know there were so many news reports saying that younger people don't get sick and don't wind up in the hospital.

But new data from the CDC shows that people under the age of 54 make up a significant proportion of those who wind up in hospital with Covid 19.

The director general of the World Health Organization warned young people about Covid 19.

With this message.

You're not invincible.

This virus could put you in hospital for weeks or even kill you.

And I know this part is scary and not what we want to hear.

But there is some new evidence that especially with babies and younger kids and those who have pre existing medical conditions, they can wind up more severely sick with Covid 19 than school age Children.

And even with no symptoms or mild symptoms, Kids and younger people can still spread this disease.

That's why we're saying this isn't the time to have a regular spring break.

We have to do physical distancing aggressively to stop the spread of disease.

Another rumor that's making the rounds is that if you have a runny nose, it means you don't have COVID-19.

This is a new virus that we're learning more about it day by day.

But as the pandemic grows and we're getting more data about symptoms, we're seeing that many people do have a runny nose and it can also cause a productive cough.

That's what we call it.

When somebody has a cough that brings up sputum.

Also known as flame.

Of course, the only true way of knowing if you have COVID-19 is to get a test for the disease.

Other myths are all about the relationship between temperature and the virus.

You may have even seen rumors that drinking hot water prevents Covid 19 or they're blasting a blow dryer into your mouth will kill the virus.

There's even one myth that goes as far as saying that coronavirus hates the sun.

There's opposed to going around.

That says the virus is killed in temperatures of 77 F or greater.

But just look at Singapore where more than 700 people became infected while the temperatures were on average like 88 F and it was really humid.

The reason I think this myth is getting traction is because many viral infections do have seasonality, some of them spread during winter months, some during summer months.

The issue here though is that this is a new virus.

It doesn't have seasonality yet.

It is spreading like wildfire through all of us because we are not immune.

We haven't been exposed before.

So we don't exactly know what kind of seasonality the new coronavirus will have if it becomes established, you may have seen the myth that gargling with salt water will prevent infection with the new coronavirus.

Salt water Gargling is a well known home remedy for when you have a cold or flu and while it can give some people symptom relief of a scratchy throat, it doesn't treat or prevent Covid 19.

Another myth, antibiotics can treat Covid 19.

Taking antibiotics for Covid 19 might sound like a good idea because antibiotics are used for treating chest infections, but they only work when they're used against bacteria, a completely different kind of bug To what causes COVID-19, which is caused by a virus to treat the new coronavirus.

You need antiviral medicines.

There aren't any right now, there are approved or proven to work against Covid 19, but some are being tested.

Another myth that I keep seeing is that if you have Covid 19, you shouldn't take ibuprofen.

There's so much confusion out there about whether Covid 19 patients should or shouldn't take ibuprofen.

This all started when the french Minister for Health tweeted that patients with Covid 19 should stay away from ibuprofen.

But it's unclear where the ministers information first came from.

And then there was a letter in a medical journal.

So a letter is different to a peer reviewed study.

The letter was wondering whether because of the way ibuprofen works, it could broadly make Covid 19 worse.

Ibuprofen is a medicine from a class of drugs known as NSAID or non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs.

Both the european medicines agency and the World Health Organization have come forward to say there's no reason to stop using ibuprofen for Covid 19 patients.

And in fact, those medicines can be useful in treating the fever and aches and pains associated with the disease.

And the other concern here is that when people see these rumors circulating, they may already be taking ibuprofen or an end set for an existing medical condition and we'll get scared and suddenly stop taking the medicine.

It's really important if you're already taking a medicine that you don't stop taking it without first talking to your health care provider.

That said, it's always a good idea to check in with your health care provider that can be a doctor, a nurse or pharmacist About any medication you're thinking of taking to treat COVID-19.

I think it's really easy to look back at those myths and think I would never fall for that.

But in the face of so much fear and uncertainty, even the smartest people can fall for false information.

Here are some quick tips for how to spot myths online.

If the information you're seeing is presented in a way that super sensationalized and trying to stoke emotion, then that's one warning sign that this could be a myth.

Always try and trace the information back to its original source.

If you can't do that, or if the original source looks shady, then it's likely to be a myth.

Always look out for credible sources of health information, such as the CDC and the World Health Organization.

I hope I've cleared up some myths about COVID-19.

If you have questions or concerns, you can leave them in the comments or reach me on my Twitter or Instagram.

Yeah, yeah.