Venezuelan President Promotes 'Miracle' Medicine, Medical Skeptic Expert

Venezuela is presided over by Nicolas Maduro (Twitter / @ NicolasMaduro)

JAKARTA - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro offers a "miracle" drug which he calls neutralizing COVID-19 without side effects. These claims, according to Venezuelan medical experts, are not supported by scientific facts.

"Ten drops under the tongue every four hours and a miracle will happen," Maduro said in a press release on Sunday 24 January.

Maduro further explained that the drug is a very strong antiviral and can neutralize the COVID-19 virus. In fact, according to him, the antiviral fluid he was promoting had been tested in months of studies.

"It's been through a period of nine months of study, experimentation, clinical application. It was administered to the sick, to the intubated person and we managed to recover them," he claims.

Maduro did not specify the active ingredients in the drug. He simply described the liquid as 'the magic drop of Jose Gregorio Hernandez', a Venezuelan doctor in the 19th century who was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church.

The treatment, which he calls Carvativir, has been tested for nine months among Venezuelan citizens who have contracted COVID-19. Maduro himself even plans to distribute it to other countries in the world.

So far, the Maduro Administration has not released evidence to back up their president's claim. Scientists at home and abroad are also skeptical. Venezuela's National Academy of Medicine said in a statement on Monday evening 25 January that Carvativir did "have therapeutic potential against the coronavirus".

"Nonetheless, it would be wise if we wait for more data from the Carvativir test to consider it a candidate for COVID-19 treatment," the statement was quoted by VOI from the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Francisco Marty, an infectious disease expert at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, wrote a tweet on his Twitter account.

"The treatment claims for the #Carvativir brand for # COVID19 are not substantiated by any clinical data, but looking at Maduro's press conference, this may lead to another euphoria of excitement on social media about sublingual drugs," he tweeted.

David Boulware, professor of medicine and infectious disease doctor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, also confirmed a lack of scientific evidence for Maduro's "miracle" drug.

"It's just like anything else, where people are trying to sell some kind of 'magic bean' as a solution to a complex problem," he said on Tuesday 26 January.

"It would be great if it worked, but I'd like to see the data," added Boulware.

Previously, Maduro had also promoted a treatment. In October last year, he notified the Pan American Health Organization that Venezuelan scientists had discovered a molecule capable of canceling the replication capacity of the new coronavirus.

However, since then Maduro has not discussed developments in the discovery. He has also offered special herbal teas which are claimed to ward off viruses and other ailments.