Covid-hit MLA faces flak for backing homoeopathy

Thiruvananthapuram: Vattiyoorkavu MLA V K Prasanth, usually a darling of social media, found himself at the receiving end over his Facebook post that said the homeopathic preventive medicine for Covid-19 had shielded him from infection till he tested positive on Saturday.
After testing Covid-positive, the MLA made a Facebook post stating that he didn’t contract the virus earlier as he took homeopathy medicine which was distributed as immunity boosters.
According to the MLA’s FB post, he was working among the public ever since the outbreak of the pandemic and he had done RT-PCR and antigen tests more than 15 times. Last week, he got his second jab of Covaxin. Also, he strongly believed that homeopathy preventive medicine had helped him avoid contracting the virus, despite all the exposure.
The comment did not go down well with many people. “Dear comrade please understand homeo is a pseudo-science and it doesn’t work…Get well soon,” wrote Jose Stephen. Dr Unnikrishnan Bhaskaran Nair who works at Kerala health services commented, “Homeopathy is a treatment method without a scientific foundation and it is a pity that responsible and educated people like you (V K Prasanth) promote these kinds of unscientific methods.”
Meanwhile, others rallied in support of the MLA against the negative comments. Rahul S G claimed that for the last 10 months not a single case of Covid-19 was reported in his friend’s ward (Thiruvali grama panchayat in Malappuram district) as they were given homeopathy preventive medicine. Reeja R stated that homeopathy medicine had saved her 80-year-old father who contracted Covid-19 but recovered without much complications.
According to sources, the MLA’s opinion was purely based on his personal experience and he didn’t mean to pitch one against the other. He received his Covid-19 vaccination, and since he was always among the people, including health workers, he had the homeopathy preventive medicine too, his office informed.
Meanwhile, the health condition of Prasanth, who is in quarantine, remains stable and he has shown mild symptoms.