Fact-checking Freedom Jacob Caesar: Garlic cure for coronavirus not medically proven

The most recently discovered coronavirus, COVID-19 is an infectious disease with its outbreak starting in December 2019 in Wuhan, China.

With symptoms of COVID-19 including fever, tiredness, dry cough, sore throat among other things, the disease has disrupted a host of activities across the globe including flights, production in industries, football and gatherings as the spread and death tolls keep rising by the day.

Being very contagious and spreading fast on various continents, people are keenly searching to educate themselves about COVID-19, resulting in the rise of misinformation around the coronavirus.

Nana Kwame Bediako popularly known as Cheddar, a real estate business mogul and Ghanaian entrepreneur has shared a video around combating coronavirus.

On his @iamfreedom Instagram page, Nana Kwame Bediako posted the video with the caption:

“The Freedom Vaccine for Corona Virus. Let’s save the world.”

The 1 minute 59 seconds video starts with a text on the screen:

“The Verbal Prescription”

“The Freedom Vaccine For Corona Virus”

“It cost you nothing!! IT’S FREE”

“Attention! This is not a cure. This kills the virus.

Nana Kwame Bediako’s video goes on to showcase how garlic and baking soda kills the coronavirus taking them at a 6-minute interval.

The video goes on to make a claim on helping ‘boost your immune system and your bio-natural-virus will begin to retain immunity over the technological man built virus.’

READ MORE: Coronavirus: Why it’s not necessary to join the mask bandwagon in Ghana

“The virus is meant to defuse your immune system, shut down your organs and finally shuts your whole system down,” the video continues.

“WARNING: This is not a pharmaceutical prescription. This is the Herbalceutical verbal prescription from freedom nation.

“Remember what can’t kill you will save you. Let’s save the world as one nation. THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT.

“Don’t follow me, follow my lead.”

With the spread of misinformation spreading faster that health officials and organizations can provide the right information, the coronavirus situation is an ‘infodemic’.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said there is ‘no evidence from current outbreak that eating garlic has protected people from the new coronavirus’.

Despite admitting garlic has its own health benefits, it is not medically confirmed if eating garlic can cure coronavirus.

In a coronavirus creative under the ‘Myth Busters’ with the question “Can eating garlic help prevent infection with the new coronavirus?”, the WHO wrote:

“Garlic is a healthy food that may have some antimicrobial properties. However, there is no evidence from the current outbreak that eating garlic has protected people from the new coronavirus.”

Nana Kwame Bediako’s claim of garlic and baking soda killing the coronavirus and making one immune to the disease is not medically proven and has no research backing.

The rise of misinformation is a problem in a social media age with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saying at the Munich Security Conference in February about the coronavirus:

“We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic.”