While scientist all over the world are working on developing a vaccine for the Covid 19 virus, South Africans seem to think that they’ve in fact found the “cure”.
On a cold winter’s night nothing warms you up from the inside quite like a glass of sherry, but now rumour has it that not only does it warm you up, it even kills the deadly virus.
The rumours of this miracle cure started when a voice note started circulating via Whatsapp after a woman in the Eastern Cape claimed that a child had been “cured” after drinking Old Brown Sherry, a popular South African sherry produced by Sedgwick’s.
In the voice note, you hear a woman speaking Xhosa, saying that a child who had been very ill on death’s bed was brought some sherry in a small juice bottle in hospital by an uncle. The child drank the sherry and by the next day he was fine. The woman adds that the sherry made the blood warm.
The story spread like wildfire and soon found it’s way on other social media platforms.
For obvious reasons this caused quite a stir and folk had lots to say. Here what people had to say on Twitter.
Just had to buy my grandma old brown sherry. What is covid doing to our parents?!
— Cerebral Assassin (@Viwe_Zuko) July 2, 2020
@DrZweliMkhize & @CyrilRamaphosa I would like to alert you my leaders of a new myth specifically in the Eastern Cape!. People are made to believe that Old Brown Sherry Will help them fight COVID-19. #Covid19SA #COVID19 #StayAtHome pic.twitter.com/QXxSt0IdE5
— B A T I (@Bati_Tizo) July 2, 2020
Guys, please don’t drink Old Brown Sherry, please!!
— Nunu Mhlahlo (@Nunurans) July 2, 2020
Old Brown sherry was flying off the shelves and leaving many bottles stores out of stock.
The Distell group has subsequently posted a message on their social media pages saying “We have become aware of a WhatsApp voice note alleging that Old Brown Sherry offers medicinal benefits. This is simply not true. Old Brown Sherry is not a cure for COVID-19.”
We’ve become aware of a WhatsApp voice note alleging that Old Brown Sherry offers medicinal benefits. This is simply not true. Old Brown Sherry is not a cure for COVID-19. Refer to official sources of info on COVID-19 – https://t.co/uSuRTuvInO or https://t.co/qkWtENROEW.
— @DistellGroup (@distellgroup) July 2, 2020
