China’s National Health Commission has a special traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) chapter in its coronavirus guidelines, while state media have been highlighting its alleged role in past outbreaks such as SARS in 2003.
Six traditional remedies have been advertised as Covid-19 treatments, the two prominent ones being Lianhua Qingwen – containing 13 herbs such as forsythia suspense and rhodiola rose – and Jinhua Qinggan – which was developed during the 2009 H1N1 outbreak and is made of 12 components including honeysuckle, mint and licorice.
TCM’s supporters argue that there is no downside to using them but experts say rigorous scientific tests are needed before such formulas are deemed safe.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health said that while it may help with symptom relief, its overall effectiveness against the coronavirus is inconclusive.
“For TCM there is no good evidence and therefore its use is not just unjustified, but dangerous,” Edzard Ernst, a retired UK-based researcher of complementary medicines, was quoted as saying in Nature journal recently.
Nevertheless, TCM is growing in China and seeing an increase in demand internationally.
President Xi is said to be a “hardcore fan” of the ancient practice and has called it a “treasure of Chinese civilization.”
But, Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, notes that “safety and efficacy issues plague TCM sector and most Chinese people still prefer modern medicine over TCM.”
China’s National Institute for Food and Drug Control last year found toxins in some TCM samples.
Despite Beijing’s persistent efforts to internationalize TCM, many people outside China remain unaware of it.
Critics say China is now using the pandemic as a way to promote it abroad – an accusation that has been denied in state media.
However China has been sending TCM supplies and practitioners alongside conventional drugs and equipment to Africa, Central Asia and Europe.
“We are willing to share the ‘Chinese experience’ and ‘Chinese solution’ of treating Covid-19, and let more countries get to know Chinese medicine, understand Chinese medicine and use Chinese medicine,” Yu Yanhong, deputy head of China’s National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said in March.
Huang believes China’s promotion of TCM abroad amounts to a soft power push.
“The government narrative that portrays TCM as being effective against COVID-19 also serves to promote the superiority of China’s anti-Covid approach, at a time when Western approaches appear to be ineffective in containing the spread of the virus,” he said.
TCM’s international profile rose last year after the World Health Organization (WHO) formally recognized it following years of lobbying by China – a move condemned by the international medical community.
The WHO then became embroiled in further controversy after it removed a warning about the use of traditional remedies to treat Covid-19 from its English- and Chinese-language recommendations.
But a lack of standards and almost no clinical trials have hampered the widespread adoption of TCM. In May Swedish authorities tested Lianhua Qingwen samples and found they only contained menthol.
(Source: bbcnews.com)
