Mums are leaving onions in their kids' rooms to 'protect against coronavirus'
Old people WhatsApp is truly out of control, with fake news spreading like wildfire around coronavirus in particular.
One old wives’ tale currently circulating on the platform is that you can protect people from COVID-19 if you leave raw onions in the corners of a room, which has led to a number of parents doing just that.
One 19-year-old whose mum was sucked in by the claims, Temiloluwa Oseni from Ashford, was shocked to find that her mother, Abiola Oseni, 46, had placed raw onions in every corner of their house, believe it would ‘absorb’ bacteria from the coronavirus and prevent her family from getting it.
Abiola has even been peeling a layer off the onions each day to help the smell from the vegetables flow around the home and work its magic.
Temiloluwa, who is a university student, said: ‘My mother believes the onions can absorb bad bacteria and from the coronavirus to keep it away.
‘I laughed when I saw it because it is not unusual for her to follow WhatsApp fake news.
‘It was just another funny thing she believed in. I did question her reasoning but there was no arguing with her.
‘The onions are still there. Each day she cuts another layer off.
‘She normally has orange and lemon peels everywhere in the house. And sometimes a cup of saltwater in the corner of the room to clean the air and keep the air not so dry.’
Temiloluwa posted pictures of the peeled onions on Twitter, and it turned out her mum wasn’t the only one who’d believed the chain messaging.
One user replied: ‘Looooooool I think our mums are in the same group chat coz my dad thought she had lost it yesterday morning.’
Another added: ‘We should have never given mums, aunties and Granma WhatsApp’
Meanwhile, one wrote: ‘I showed this to my mom. My mom said it’s true, it’s how France survived the Plague.’
There’s no harm in leaving onions around the house, except for the fact it’ll use up good veg that could be cooked with and potentially make your house smell a bit worse for wear.
However, there is no basis in science that the pungent alliums will prevent, cure, or in any other way combat COVID-19.
There is currently no vaccine or cure for this strain of the virus, and the best thing we can all do is stay at home and practice good hygiene.
Will that stop our WhatsApp mums, aunties, and uncles coming up with new ‘remedies’ every five minutes, though? Certainly not.
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