Shanghai needs food, not TCM Covid-19 medicine Lianhua Qingwen: medical experts
- Chinese doctors raise doubts over the treatment’s effectiveness and question why millions of capsules were delivered to a city desperate for other supplies
- The remedy is recommended in China’s national guidelines but doctors warn it could cause stomach and kidney problems in healthy people
“Dispatching of Covid medicines should follow rigorous tests and examinations. No fake and shoddy products should be given to the public,” Rao Yi, president of Capital Medical University in Beijing, said in a post on social media platform WeChat.
“If the efficacy of Lianhua Qingwen has never been strictly proven, the mandatory dispatch would hurt the interests of people in shortage of food and drug necessities,” he posted to his Rao Yi Science account on Sunday.
According to a bourse filing on April 8, makers Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical donated 61 million yuan (US$9.5 million) worth of Lianhua Qingwen to Shanghai – at least 8 million boxes.
The delivery priority given to the donation generated widespread outrage on social media platforms when a volunteer driver in Shanghai said last week he was part of a motorcade that devoted a third of its capacity to the remedy, instead of desperately needed vegetables, rice and masks.
Three medical experts led by Jinan University’s Xie Wangshi also expressed dismay at the prioritising of Lianhua Qingwen in supplies to Shanghai, in an article on Sunday at Chinese health platform DXY.