WATCH: Real Doctor Actually Had To Warn TV Viewers ‘Do Not Buy Breast Milk To Prevent Covid’
Dr. Dyan Hes found herself in the unusual position of having to warn CBS viewers not to buy human breast milk in order to prevent or cure the coronavirus.
It’s been a tough week for TV doctors like Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz, but at least one doc got to deliver news viewers could use. On Tuesday, CBSN’s Anne-Marie Green and Vladimir Duthiers interviewed Dr. Hes, a New York pediatrician, about the pandemic with relation to her specialty.
Along the way, Green told Hes “So doctor, I got to ask you about something else. I read a headline the other day, and I had to read it twice, because I was dumbfounded. It essentially said that adults are now buying breast milk because some believe that it can protect them from Covid-19. They’re this conversation out there now, and I believe there are studies looking into it, that breast milk may contain antibodies that may have some sort of protective abilities.”
“Can you speak to that?” she asked Hes.
“There’s no proof of that yet, this is all hypothetical,” Dr. Hes responded, and then instead described the methods for women to safely breastfeed with Covid, which is a more pressing issue.
She then added “There is no proof that breast milk at all can cure Covid or give you antibodies, that is, there is no data that I know of that has been published at about it.”
Duthiers then said “Can I just ask, as perhaps one of our viewers who does not have children and, so Annemarie what you said is the headline said that adults are buying breast milk. Where do you buy breast milk, I’ve never heard of that, maybe it’s common, what am I missing here?”
“You can buy it on Facebook groups, parents, there are donor banks,” Dr. Hes said, and added that “an adult is not going to get a donor bank breast milk, but there are people who will sell anything.”
“And I have to tell you, not related to Covid, I’ve had patients before who felt very desperate because they could not produce breast milk and they bought what they thought was breast milk online, and that have had very severe anemic babies because maybe it is breast milk but they’re diluting it, or it’s not been tested for diseases, so I would not recommend that, that would be the lowest thing on my list,” she continued.
“I think you can take some vitamin C and zinc if you want, but do not buy breast milk to prevent covet, that is not going to help you. No,” Dr. Hes said.
Apparently, buying human breast milk to combat the coronavirus is a thing that people do, but now you know: don’t.
Watch the clip above via CBSN.
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