Ever since the coronavirus pandemic spread, India has encouraged the use of ayurvedic remedies to increase the immunity among Indians with the Indian health ministry recommending traditional remedies to tackle the country's COVID-19 outbreak. This however has dismayed several Indian doctors and scientists.
Last month, recommendations for preventing COVID-19 were released by health minister Harsh Vardhan and this had triggered sharp criticism from the Indian Medical Association (IMA). Now, Twitter has reacted sharply towards a legal notice served upon Indian Medical Association for not supporting Ministry of Ayush claim of Ayurvedic medicine for COVID-19. Notice says IMA equating Ayurvedic Drugs to a placebo was "false & defamatory."
Legal notice served upon IMA
It should be noted that Vaidya Prashant Tiwari, a practitioner of Ayurvedic Medicine, has served a legal notice upon the Indian Medical Association (IMA) for its alleged defamatory remarks against AYUSH remedies for the management COVID-19.
The notice accuses the IMA of slandering the reputation of Indian medicine by its comments, questioning the effectiveness of AYUSH treatment modes.
Twitter reacts
A Twitter user posted, "This is just evil. How many lawmakers including central govt ministers struck by Covid have availed Ayurveda for treatment? When it comes to themselves they will rush to the best hospitals and doctors. When it comes to ordinary people they don't mind pushing quackery."
As a reply a user posted, "This is how you people spread propaganda. Ayurveda talks about improving immunity through natural herbs... One could cure himself through yoga and natural herbs which do not have side effects...while allopathic medicine has side effects on liver and kidney."
While another one wrote, "If Ayurveda is so effective, then why do ministers not opt for Ayurvedic treatment instead of rushing to allopathic hospitals?"
Earlier, in a press release, IMA had demanded that Vardhan should generate evidence of the treatments' efficacy; and in case he fails to do so, the association wrote, Vardhan is "inflicting a fraud on the nation and gullible patients by calling placebos as drugs." A thoracic surgeon had stated that no drug should be recommended without evidence as COVID-19 has claimed more than 100,000 Indian lives.
