Internationally as well as in India, the AYUSH ministry and the Indian government have met with a lot of condemnation for issuing the advisory to use homeopathy as a preventative measure. As with other homeopathic drugs, Arsenicum album 30 has never been tested or proven to reduce or prevent Coronavirus infections. Even though the focus was to study the research conducted by the homeopaths, no studies were found by non-homeopaths within the evidence-based framework that suggests the use of Arsenicum album 30 for Coronavirus. Experts have called out the government for pushing homeopathy as a possible preventive treatment option for Coronavirus infections. There’s no scientific evidence for the efficacy of homeopathic treatment. There’s no evidence that homeopathy can cure viral infections or that the unani drugs prescribed by the government can reduce virulence, said Sumaiya Shaikh, an Australian neuroscientist and science fact-checker with AltNews.
Oomen C Kurien, head of the Observer Research Foundation’s Health Initiative, said, “The number of Indian lives saved by homeopathy from the Coronavirus will be exactly the same as lives saved by homeopathy from HIV.”
“I’m usually all ‘homeopathy is more of an interesting cultural phenomenon than directly dangerous’, but the Indian government’s official public information service recommending homeopathy for Coronavirus is pretty intense.” – Ben Goldacre, Director of Oxford’s Evidence-Based Medicine DataLab.
Later on, the Ministry of AYUSH said on Twitter that its advisory was issued “as a preventive measure” and not as “treatment advice” for Coronavirus infections.