A viral WhatsApp forward claims that prolonged use of masks is dangerous and alkaline foods can protect from Covid-19. Both these claims are false and misleading.

False and unscientific remedies and unproven facts have filled the internet since the outbreak of the coronavirus. Many people fall for it and it ends up doing more harm than we’re already dealing with. We found a message that has been widely shared on Whatsapp for quite some time. This viral message instills both fear and false hope.

The message has two parts. In the first half it reads “DANGER OF FACEMASK” and then further in the second half gives a health advisory and suggests what medicines are to be taken during this time.

Going to the first part, the message warns people against using face masks for too long. It states that wearing a mask for a prolonged time, saying that doing so reduces the oxygen supply to blood and brain. This may weaken a person and may also lead to death. It then advises people not to wear masks.

The second part gives a list of medicines and food items that are given to patients in isolation and suggests that taking these will eliminate the virus. It lists vitamins, eggs, only warm meals, and drinking I.5L of water every day. It also claims that the pH of the virus ranges from 5.5 to 8.5 and therefore taking alkaline foods like lemons, garlic, pineapple, oranges, mango, etc are best suited to be safe from the virus.

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Coming to the first claim, a study published in 2014 in the Journal of Lung, Pulmonary, and Respiratory Research the surgical masks and respirators can cause some level of discomfort after prolonged use, but they do not cause low blood oxygen levels and also do not lead to death. Normal cloths made of cloth and without valves are safe to use for prolonged use.

We asked our fact-checker, Dr. Debanjan Banerjee, who is a senior fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore to verify the claim. He explained that the better the mask the more uncomfortable it is but “the amount of time needed to really cause decreased oxygen supply to the brain is very long and practically impossible.”

“However, for people who have asthma, allergy, migraine, COPD, insomnia: prolonged use (more than 6 hours at a stretch) can lead to breathing difficulties. Therefore intermittent pulling it off at frequent intervals is recommended”, he added.

Face masks are an essential commodity in the current pandemic. The CDC recommends wearing face coverings in public settings, especially in situations where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain. As a priority, the N-95 respirators and surgical masks should only be used by frontline health workers who face a greater risk of exposure to the coronavirus disease in their work environment. The rest of the population is advised to wear modified cloth masks that will provide them protection.

While checking the second claim, we found there were some evident mistakes in the first look itself. Firstly, a virus does not have a pH of its own. Secondly, a pH value ranges from 0 to 14, the values less than 7 being acidic and more than 7 is basic/alkaline. But the message claims that Avocado has a pH of 15.6, which is not possible. Thirdly, the pH levels given for other foods is also incorrect. For example, it gives a pH value of 9.9 for lemons, while its actual value is 2.

Furthermore, the guidelines of the CDC or WHO do not claim that eating alkaline foods can beat the coronavirus.

Therefore both these claims are false and misleading.

UPDATE: Story updated for a qoute from Dr. Debnajan.