We’re living in uncertain, surreal times, as the coronavirus crisis worsens in the United States. As we’re struggling with a vacuum of reliable information, coronavirus myths are spreading as quickly as the disease, amplified by social media. Luckily, we’ve got Dr. Seema Yasmin, director of the Stanford Health Communication Initiative at Stanford University. In the video above, she debunks common—and even dangerous—myths about the coronavirus and the disease it causes, Covid-19.
You can’t, for instance, diagnose yourself with Covid-19 by holding your breath for 10 seconds to see if you cough. Coronavirus does affect the lungs, and indeed this is one way it kills patients. But simply holding your breath can’t tell you if the virus is affecting your lungs. “Of course, the only true way of knowing if you have Covid-19 is to get a test for the disease,” Yasmin says.
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