Many amazed by Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba's claim of “drinking warm water to ‘flush’ virus down to the stomach and let digestive acids do the rest, kills any virus left in the stomach”( “Health Minister's 'warm water method' to kill coronavirus questioned” The Star 20.03.2020). It is believed that what mentioned by the Health Minister could be traditional healing process neither scientific nor proven clinically.

It is true many read articles and watch videos that encouraging people to drink warm water and not cold water for health reason by not lowering your body temperature from drinking cold water. The reasoning is by just lowering body temperature by merely one degree would lower your body resistance to germs and virus hence becoming ill. Drinking plenty of water itself is to prevent dehydration as well.

Not long ago, I made a visit to nearby 1-Malaysia clinic for sore throat; the lady doctor prescribed some medicines but advised me to drink a lot of water and rinse my mouth and gargling throat with salt water for sore throat and said I actually need no medicine for sore throat just salt water. I would say this piece of advice is more useful than Health Minister “drink warm water” advice.

A man in his status as Health Minister has to be very careful what he said because whatever said by him carried weights and will be treated as accurate and affirmative. However, the danger of his “drinking warm water to remove and kill coronavirus” message would bring more harm than good especially when Malaysian delay seeking medical help and drinking plenty of warn water thinking that will kill the virus and save his life. Would Malaysia Covid-19 situation worsening and have to extend the duration of “Restrictive Movement Order” if more people believed in his advice and delay in seeking medical help?

Malaysian would be very thankful to Health Minister if he could help to source for quality surgical masks and sanitizers and make them available to public at a reasonable price and at the same time to prevent anyone from taking the chance of making use of current situation to make a huge profit. China has come out of the Coronavirus situation and its industries resume operation and are taking the lead to put the country back to its previous economic position. Malaysian government should seek China medical assistance in combating Coronavirus since they have the firsthand experience in fighting Covid-19 disease.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba should also pool resources and look into the plan of setting up Coronavirus treatment hospitals in Sarawak, Sabah and Malaya to prepare for the worse situation instead of providing medical help on ab hoc basis.

It is advisable for the Health Minister to find time to equip himself with Coronavirus knowledge and the latest development of vaccine for Coronavirus (Covid-19) especially China vaccine currently in the testing stage and American company intended to do testing on human in Singapore too. It is important the Health Minister will follow up the vaccine development and obtain the supply as soon as it is available for the benefit of Malaysian.

Arthur Wong
Publicity and Information Chief
Parti Bumi Kenyalang
21.03.2020