CS Kagwe: Not everyone is an expert on COVID-19

Health CS Mutahi Kagwe has decried false claims doing rounds on social media on how to treat COVID-19.

This comes hours after a controversial video with one Dr. Stella Immanuel alleging that she had treated patients with hydroxychloroquine was pulled down by Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

“The biggest mistake I think is just imagining that if the person is called a doctor he is an expert in everything…I want to urge that please let not everyone become an expert because there’s COVID-19,” he said during the Press briefing on Wednesday.

The Health CS insisted that Kenyans should only listen to qualified experts and urged the media fraternity to talk to the medical council to get people who can speak on various subjects.

A video featuring Dr Stella Immanuel alongside colleagues from America’s Frontline Doctors making false and dubious claims related to the coronavirus was removed by Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube after going viral online Monday.

The video, published by the right-wing media outlet Breitbart News, featured a group of people wearing white lab coats calling themselves “America’s Frontline Doctors” staging a press conference in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC.

President Trump shared multiple versions of the video with his 84 million Twitter followers Monday night despite the dubious claims running counter to his administration’s own public health experts. Spokespersons for the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

During the press conference, a speaker who identifies herself as a doctor makes a number of dubious claims, including that “you don’t need masks” to prevent spread of the coronavirus, and that recent studies showing hydroxychloroquine is ineffective for the treatment of Covid-19 are “fake science” sponsored by “fake pharma companies.”

“This virus has a cure, it’s called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax,” the woman claims. “You don’t need masks, there is a cure.”

The claims run contrary to multiple studies on the anti-malarial drug and advice from public health officials to prevent spread of the virus.

Additional report from CNN

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coronavirus hydroxychloroquine Stella Immanuel

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