Gargling warm salty water eliminates the coronavirus? Fact Check

A viral message spreading on social media claims that gargling warm water mixed with salt or vinegar will eliminate the 2019 coronavirus strain.

FALSE

An example as it appears on social media can be seen below.

Corona virus before it reaches the lungs it remains in the throat for four days and at this time the person begins to cough and have throat pains. If he drinks water a lot and gargling with warm water & salt or vinegar eliminates the virus. Spread this information because you can save someone with this information.

The apparent medicinal properties of warm water mixed with salt (saline) have long been exaggerated or embellished by a long and extensive string of folklore tales, chain emails and social media “cures”. So it was perhaps inevitable that during the 2019/2020 coronavirus outbreak, lots of so-called cures involving salty water would creep out of the woodwork.

And so they have, most noticeably with the claim that consuming salty water or saline either by gargling or rinsing the mouth or nose will somehow eliminate the coronavirus infection and COVID-19 disease.

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While drinking water – warm or cold – is obviously general sound advice since it keeps you hydrated, there is no evidence that such an action will cure coronavirus, nor any scientific reasoning to back it up. The World Health Organisation has already dismissed the claim that regularly rinsing your nose with saline will protect you from the coronavirus.

No. There is no evidence that regularly rinsing the nose with saline has protected people from infection with the new coronavirus.

No entity, including WHO, the NHS or the CDC lists gargling or consuming warm salty water as a preventative measure or a cure for the 2019 coronavirus. At the time of writing, there is no cure or vaccine for the 2019 coronavirus strain.

While saline certainly does have its medicinal qualities, namely for keeping patients hydrated, delivering certain types of medications or alleviating certain minor medical ailments such as the common cold or sore throat, it is not by itself a magical cure-all, and there is no evidence that it can have any effect on more serious ailments such as respiratory infections.

A similar hoax that claims drinking water every 15 minutes would prevent the coronavirus has been dismissed here.