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the last 15 days,” Beishenaliyev said, referring to the president by name and patronymic.
Beishenaliyev added that he now aspires to also learn the art of dosing wolf’s brew.
“For a long time, Sadyr Nurgozhoevich’s father used it and passed on the knowledge to his son. I too want to learn, and I am asking him [Japarov] every day to come to us for an hour and teach us about dosing,” he said.
Beishenaliyev said the roots of the wolf's-bane plant grow prodigiously in the mountain pastures near Japarov’s family home. Health Ministry workers have been dispatched to that location to collect plants from which more of the potion will be produced, he said.
In the absence of tested medical treatments, many in Kyrgyzstan have been turning to folk remedies, although none have received an endorsement from so senior an authority.
Last March, messages spread like wildfire across WhatsApp groups extolling the virtues of ginger- and lemon-based concoctions as a defence against coronavirus infections. The chatter became so great and insistent that retail prices for these items surged. Dog and badger fat were likewise widely used as dietary supplements in the belief they might ward off disease.
Another folk technique that made a resurgence during the first wave of COVID-19 was a form of bloodletting known
as hijama, or wet cupping. The patient has suction cups placed along certain areas of the body, and incisions are then made to those vacuum-inflamed patches of flesh, purportedly enabling some form of detoxification.
Japarov is not alone among the region’s presidents to offer spurious coronavirus-related health advice.
In December, Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov spoke at a Cabinet meeting about the virtues of liquorice roots, which he said have been used since old times to treat coughs and respiratory diseases. There have been countless references to the curative properties of liquorice in state media since that time.
No leader is better known for offering controversial medical recommendations, though, than former US President Donald Trump. In April 2020, Trump provoked much dismay when he used a coronavirus briefing to wonder whether doctors might consider administering disinfectant as a form of treatment.
“I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning?” he asked. “So it would be interesting to check that ... you’re going to have to use medical doctors ... but it sounds – it sounds interesting to me.”
This article originally appeared on Eurasianet.
Medicine man.
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