Corona ‘Sad’lights: Social Media ‘Cure’ Takes Toll Of 300 Iranians

TEHRAN: Nearly 300 people have died and more than 1000 have fallen ill after consuming Methanol, across the Islamic republic of Iran. This was a practice that started among the Iranians after they came across posts on social media convincing them that consumption of Methanol will help protect people from the novel deadly coronavirus.

“The virus is spreading and people are just dying, and I think they are even less aware of the fact that there are other dangers around,” said Dr Knut Erik Hovda, a clinical toxicologist in Oslo, who studies methanol poisoning and fears Iran's outbreak could be even worse than reported. “When they keep drinking this, there's going to be more people poisoned,” ABC news reported.

Coronavirus has swept across the world, overwhelming hospitals, crippling economies and forcing governments to restrict the movements of billions of people. Particularly hard hit has been Iran, home to 80 million people.

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