As COVID-19 rips through China's vast population, making millions sick and fueling a shortage of drugs, many are turning to old-school traditional medicines to battle the aches and pains of the virus.
Ben Cowling, chair of epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong's School of Public Health, told AFP:"We don't know whether these treatments are effective or not, because they haven't been studied in clinical trials." FILE PHOTO
Critics say it is pseudoscientific and ineffective in treating actual illness, and there is little peer-reviewed data to back claims of its efficacy.Beijing consultant Yu Lei, 38, had a fever after catching COVID-19, so he made a herbal tea with reputed anti-inflammatory properties featuring cassia twig -- a kind of Chinese cinnamon -- peony roots, liquorice, jujubes and ginger.
However, Ben Cowling, chair of epidemiology at the University of Hong Kong's School of Public Health, told AFP: "We don't know whether these treatments are effective or not, because they haven't been studied in clinical trials." Experts have taken to television to praise TCM since the start of the pandemic, with one product in particular -- Lianhua Qingwen -- benefiting from intense promotion by authorities.
Lan Jirui, a doctor of Chinese medicine in Beijing, told AFP: "It's the same logic as Western medicine.
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