Pragya Thakur prescribes cow urine for COVID-19 prevention

Pragya Singh Thakur, the BJP MP from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, has said that drinking cow urine protects from lung infection and can also be beneficial against coronavirus. A video of Thakur speaking to a gathering has been widely circulated on social media. The MP was not wearing a mask during her address.

"If we take gaumutra, it cures lung infection. I take it regularly. This is the reason that I am safe, corona could not infect me. We all should keep a cow at home," she said. She also took an oath to plant one crore saplings in her Lok Sabha constituency.

Thakur then went on to explain how to consume it too. She said, “The urine should belong to a cow of indigenous breed…one who only grass from a forest. It should then be filtered at least 16 times using a cotton cloth before consumption.”

Thakur stuck to her stand a day later and said on Monday, “I said what I practise. It is my belief and I didn’t force anybody to follow this.”

Thakur’s statement comes at a time when the Indian Medical Association has clearly specified that there is no scientific evidence to prove that cow dung or urine helps with the treatment or prevention of Covid-19.

“There is no concrete scientific evidence that cow dung or urine work to boost immunity against COVID-19, it is based entirely on belief,” Dr JA Jayalal, national president at the Indian Medical Association, was quoted as saying by The Wire.

However, this is not the first time when BJP MP made such statement, in the past she said that a mixture of gau mutr (cow urine) and other cow products cured my cancer.