Member-only story
Bootleg Alcohol Cure for COVID-19 Killing Hundreds in Iran
Now come reports that hundreds of Iranians have been killed by drinking industrial-strength alcohol, believing and hoping that it is a cure or preventative for COVID-19 virus.
The Associated Press cites Iranian media reports which indicate widespread belief among Iranians that methanol (methyl alcohol) essentially immunizes people from the new virus. At this writing, nearly 300 people have died and 1,000 others have been sickened after ingesting this toxin. One Iranian doctor told the AP that the true numbers were probably closer to 480 and 2,850, respectively.
“Other countries have only one problem, which is the new coronavirus pandemic. But we are fighting on two fronts here,” Dr. Hossein Hassanian, an adviser to Iran’s Health Ministry, said.
“We have to both cure the people with alcohol poisoning and also fight the coronavirus.”
Of course, drinking, selling or buying– possessing — alcohol has been strictly verboten in the Islamic Republic of Iran ever since the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the overthrow of the Shah of Iran.
