Medical experts warn against claims by Winnipeg acupuncturist advertising ‘coronavirus prevention tea’
Hidden camera reveals acupuncturist claimed tea prevented doctors in Wuhan from catching COVID-19
Medical experts are warning Canadians not to believe the hype after a hidden camera investigation revealed a Winnipeg acupuncturist was selling an herbal tea that he claims can prevent COVID-19.
In an email blast to clients last week, Guojian Huang, an acupuncture therapist and specialist in traditional Chinese medicine, said drinking a blend of six herbs in a tea over six days would keep people safe.
“COVID-19 is here.… So is herb tea to prevent COVID-19,” said the email, which was sent March 18.
It told clients of the acupuncture clinic to “order your coronavirus prevention tea now.”
A Facebook post from the same day made a similar claim.
“This is quite outrageous,” said Cedric Cheung, the national president of the Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture Association of Canada, when told about the claim.
“You cannot make a statement that can possibly mislead a patient.”
Health Canada has not approved any product to prevent, treat or cure COVID-19, the illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
“Selling unauthorized health products or making false or misleading claims to prevent, treat or cure COVID-19 is illegal in Canada,” a Health Canada spokesperson said in an email to CBC News.
“We take this matter very seriously and we are taking action to stop this activity.”
Tea bags sold to reporter
Using a hidden camera, a CBC reporter posed last week as an interested customer and visited Huang’s clinic to pick up the tea. The recommended six-day treatment cost $60.
He claimed that about 200 doctors and medical staff travelled to the Chinese city of Wuhan — where the virus was first detected in December — and treated patients infected with the disease, but none of them got sick.
“Before going to Wuhan everybody drink this kind of tea, everybody safe after they come back,” Huang told the CBC reporter. “They stay almost one month there.”
WATCH | Hidden camera video inside Winnipeg’s Ankang Acupuncture Healing Centre:
Hidden camera video inside Winnipeg’s Ankang Acupuncture Healing Centre
- 4 days ago
- 0:42
Last week a CBC Manitoba I-Team reporter posed as a customer to ask Winnipeg acupuncturist Guojian Huang about a tea he claimed could prevent the COVID-19 virus. 0:42
He said in two days he had already sold “hundreds” of packets of the tea, which he mixed at his Winnipeg clinic, Ankang Acupuncture Healing Centre.
Huang said he used herbs from Vancouver and Toronto and followed a recipe crafted by Chinese doctors who had travelled to Wuhan.
“Sometimes experience is more important than science,” Huang told CBC’s reporter.
Huang declined a later interview request but told CBC News via email that his belief in the tea’s healing properties comes from teachings.
- Got a tip for CBC Manitoba’s I-Team to investigate? Email or call the confidential tip line at 204-788-3744.
“All info I told you on the phone or in my clinic, I got them from online seminar as well as lots research articles, online-news, etc. where Chinese medicine doctors shared their experiences and knowledge of using Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture to prevent and treat coronavirus,” said Huang’s email.
He later walked back his comments in another email to CBC.
“Please don’t misunderstand the Chinese herbal tea benefits,” said Huang in the later email.
“For prevention, most important is to keep social distance, hand washing, self isolation, wear masks, gloves, eye goggles as needed. Herbs can’t instead of those things.”
‘Now they think they’re invincible’: physician
A Toronto physician who treated patients during the SARS outbreak cautions people against believing claims about COVID-19 cures.
“My concern is that they’re desperate,” said Dr. Peter Lin in a Skype interview with CBC News. “They take this stuff and then now they think they’re invincible, and they don’t do the precautions that will actually protect them, because now they’re trusting in this particular tea.”
Lin runs two family practices in Toronto and is a regular CBC columnist. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, he’s heard everything from claims that standing on your head will keep the virus away, to claims that drinking warm water and vinegar will prevent infection.
“Everybody wants to find that magical ‘take vitamin C and you’ll be OK’ … kind of thing,” he said.
“But unfortunately, with this particular virus, it gets into your lungs and it attaches there. So the best thing is to avoid it coming into your lungs. In other words, protect your personal borders.”
Lin said what is effective at preventing the spread of COVID-19 is washing your hands often, avoiding touching your face, and keeping your distance from others.