China is promoting coronavirus treatments based on unproven traditional medicines
7 May, 2020Scientists say rigorous trial data are needed to show that remedies are safe and effective
The Chinese government is heavily promoting traditional medicines as treatments for COVID-19. The remedies, a major part of China’s health-care system, are even being sent to countries including Iran and Italy as international aid. But scientists outside China say it is dangerous to support therapies that have yet to be proved safe and effective.
There are currently no proven treatments for the deadly respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, although many countries are trialling existing and experimental drugs. So far, only one — the antiviral remdesivir — has been shown, in randomized control trials, to have some potential to speed up recovery.
Although the efficacy of some TCM remedies for COVID-19 is being tested, some researchers say the trials have not been rigorously designed and are unlikely to produce reliable results. Government officials and TCM practitioners deem the remedies safe because some have been used for thousands of years, but significant side effects have been reported.
The WHO initially discouraged the use of traditional remedies to treat COVID-19. For the first months of the outbreak, they were listed on the agency’s website as “not effective against COVID-2019 and can be harmful”.
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