A video of Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko is doing the rounds, in which he claims that according to research from the World Health Organization, drinking alcohol kills the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.I looked into this and this is what I found.

In the video, Gov. Sonko says that he is including bottles of cognac in the care packages to be donated to the needy, because since hand sanitizer contains 70% alcohol, the cognac would also act as a “throat sanitizer” and would kill the virus. This is FALSE.

The WHO posted this on its Facebook page on March 30th. The post says that not only does drinking alcohol NOT protect you against COVID-19, frequent or excessive alcohol use could increase your risk of health problems.

The Center for Disease Control recommends the use of alcohol based hand sanitizers with greater than 60% alcohol as the preferred form of hand hygiene in healthcare settings.

The cognac Gov. Sonko has referenced only has 40% vol. alcohol. So even if you were to use it as a hand sanitizer, it would not be effective.

The WHO website has a wealth of information about this pandemic, which includes daily updates on infections and fatalities, as well as guidelines on how to protect yourself. You can find this here. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

So TL:DR – drinking alcohol will NOT protect you from COVID-19.

FIN.

@Ian_Wafula @georgiendirangu @YvonneOkwara