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| - Fact Check: Dr Devi Shetty never advised these 22 steps to avoid coronavirus
A viral post suggesting 22 steps to protect oneself from a coronavirus infection is being attributed to renowned Indian cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty.
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India Today Fact Check
The viral message has been falsely attributed to Dr Devi Shetty. He has not issued the advisory.
In the absence of a vaccine against Covid-19, social media is full of remedies against the deadly infection, often in the name of well-known personalities. One such viral post suggesting 22 steps to protect oneself from a coronavirus infection is being attributed to renowned Indian cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty.
Facebook user "Biswadeb Chattopadhyay" used a picture of Dr Shetty in a long post written in Bengali, listing out the 22 suggestions. He said these "easy steps" should be followed for one year as suggested by Dr Shetty, the chairman and founder of Narayana Health, and who has performed more than 15,000 heart operations.
Some of these suggestions ask people to leave shoes outside, use sanitisers instead of handkerchiefs and avoid outside food for one year. Till the time of filing this story, the post was shared over 56,000 times. The archived version can be seen here.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that the viral post is falsely attributed to Dr Shetty. He did not issue the 22 guidelines to save oneself from coronavirus.
AFWA probe
We first tried to find out news reports related to Dr Shetty having prescribed any preventive measure against coronavirus. With the help of keyword search, we found an article by Dr Shetty in the blogs section of "The Times of India".
In the article, Dr Shetty does mention a few ways to stay safe, which are similar to a couple of points in the viral post, but not exactly the same. For example, he suggested avoiding any kind of travel or crowded place, but nowhere did he mention specifics such as avoiding "foreign travel" or crowded places "for a year" as the viral post says.
Along with this, we also found a video on YouTube wherein Dr Shetty speaks on preventive measures against Covid-19. He did emphasise on maintaining "social distance" but never asked people not to eat outside food for one year or avoid wearing belts, rings and wristwatches while going out, as mentioned in the viral post.
We also reached out to Dr Shetty to verify the credibility of the viral post. He replied, "It is fake and stupid. It is very sad that some people take advantage of pain and suffering we all are going through. I hope sanity prevails."
The response can be seen below.
Therefore, it is clear that the viral post is fake. Dr Shetty never prescribed a list of 22 suggestions to be followed for one year to save oneself from coronavirus.
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