An Indian politician, Sukhbir Jaunapuria, who claimed bathing in the mud with a conch shell provides immunity to COVID-19, later tested positive to the virus.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been numerous immunity claims in India, from drinking the urine of a cow to other ambiguous claims.
Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria, a minister from the northern state of Rajasthan, tested positive on the first day of the Parliament’s monsoon session, according to reports in local media.
A month before his diagnosis, the politician shared a video of himself on Facebook sitting in a mud bath.
“Go out, get wet in the rain, sit in the dirt, work on the farm, blow a conch … and eat ‘desi’ things,” said Mr Jaunapuria in Hindi. Desi is a Hindi term meaning local or indigenous.
“One gains immunity from doing these things,” he added.
He also said: “Blowing a conch makes our lungs stronger.”
Recently, a minister from the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, Imarti Devi, said she believes that she is immune to the infection because she was born in cow dung and mud. The comment was reportedly made during a confrontation with the media on September 3, and it was being widely shared online.
