In China, dubious treatments explode across social media

Chinese are turning to social media influencers and celebrities for tips about treating COVID, after the country’s whipsaw reversal in virus strategy undermined trust in government advice and health officials.

China’s rapid dismantling of pandemic restrictions over a matter of weeks at the end of last year led to a quick surge in infections, with COVID spreading through cities and towns that have had little experience with the virus until now. With the government hastily retreating, people are increasingly looking to social media for answers, resulting in a corresponding increase in misinformation and even dangerous advice.

Search queries about treating common COVID maladies, from whether the XBB sub-variant causes diarrhea to how best to treat pneumonia, throw up a raft of responses on the Chinese internet: adopt a vegan diet, take multiple antibodies, or even ways to buy illegal enzymes from online celebrities.

Throughout the pandemic, people in many countries — particularly those where the government’s approach to the virus was questioned or was ineffective — also turned to untested remedies and online advice. The U.S. craze for ivermectin, which is primarily approved to treat diseases caused by parasites in livestock and humans, is a prime example.

What makes China’s rush different is that it’s being accompanied by corresponding backlash against the government.

News stories and social media posts on COVID advice from Chinese health officials are being regularly lambasted with comments questioning their credibility.

The pushback has become so strong that the slogan “we advise experts to stop giving advice” was one of the top trending topics on Chinese social media platform Weibo this month.

The result is that some Chinese are increasingly relying on influencers and others online who lack medical expertise for advice on how to treat or not contract the virus. A Weibo search for “preventing COVID” points people to nasal irrigation and “angong niuhuang” pills — traditional Chinese medicine typically used for strokes that’s made of cattle gallstones and buffalo horns, and contains arsenic and mercury.