Misleading headlines are circulating on social media with the false claim that marijuana prevents COVID-19 infection. The posts are in response to a study that investigated whether certain cannabis extracts could prevent SARS-CoV-2 from entering cultured cells in a lab. While the study was peer-reviewed and its results do not appear to be in question, the issue is that none of the study’s experiments were conducted in humans and the cannabis extracts it examined are not the compounds ingested or smoked by cannabis users. This can be described as early stage research, perhaps opening the door to further research but itself providing no evidence that marijuana can prevent or treat COVID-19.
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The viral false claims that “weed kills COVID-19” misinterprets the results of this study. Emphasizing that this is preliminary data that has not been tested in humans is recommended, as is explaining that vaccines provide the best protection against COVID-19 disease. Fact-Checking Source(s):
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