Drinking water and keeping throat moist protects against coronavirus? Fact Check

ByCraig Haley

Various warnings circulating social media claim that keeping your throat moist and drinking water regularly will help prevent you from catching the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.

Many of the warnings claim to come from a relevant health entity, most popularly the Canadian Department of Health. Other variants claim that drinking water will wash the virus from the mouth to the stomach, which in turn will kill the virus.

FALSE

Examples of such warnings can be seen below.

Source :
Canadian Department of Health Bulletin
Pls tell ur families, relatives and friends
The Upper Respiratory Infection affecting China at present is quite serious. The virus causing it is very potent and is resistant to existing antibiotics.
(virus is not bacterial infection hence cannot be treated by antibiotics).
The prevention method now is to keep your throat moist, do not let your throat dry up. Thus do not hold your thirst because once your membrane in your throat is dried, the virus will invade into your body within 10 mins. Drink 50-80cc warm water, 30-50cc for kids, according to age. Everytime you feel your throat is dry, do not wait, keep water in hand. Do not drink plenty at one time as it does not help; instead, continue to keep throat moist. Till end of March, do not go to crowded places, wear mask as needed especially in train or public transportation.
Avoid fried or spicy food and load up vitamin C.
The symptoms/ description are:
1. Repeated high fever.
2. Prolonged coughing after fever.
3. Children are more prone.
4. Adults usually feel uneasy, headache and mainly respiratory related illness.
This illness is highly contagious. Let’s continue to pray and wait for further notice about the infection.
Please share.

And…

SERIOUS EXCELLENT ADVICE by Japanese doctors treating COVID-19 cases. Everyone should ensure your mouth & throat is moist, never DRY. Take a few sips of water every 15 mins at least. WHY? Even if the virus gets into your mouth…drinking water or other liquids will WASH them down through your oesophagus and into the stomach. Once there in tummy…your stomach ACID will kill all the virus. If you don’t drink enough water more regularly…the virus can enter your windpipes and into the LUNGS. That’s very dangerous.

 
While drinking water regularly is always recommended as general sound health advice, the warnings are baseless, and we can find no health organisations recommending that drinking water will help prevent catching the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.

Health Canada, that is often attached as the source to these claims, makes no mention of drinking water in its recommendations to preventing coronavirus. The only mention it makes of water is to ensure you wash your hands with soap and water regularly.


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Similarly, the CDC also fails to mention that drinking water will prevent coronavirus, and too only mentions water in the context of washing hands regularly.

Additionally this claim has also been addressed by Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, who dismissed the claims.

We always caution anyone healthy and people who are sick to keep up fluid intake and keep mucus membranes moist
…
It makes you feel better, there is no clear indication that it directly protects you against complications.

As such, we rank the claim that regularly drinking water or keeping your throat moist will protect against coronavirus as false.

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