Many rumors about the benefits of wine to protect against the coronavirus epidemic have appeared in recent weeks. But it is not. Alcohol does not protect against the virus.
Wine enthusiasts or aperitif lovers can put their glasses away. No, wine does not protect against the coronavirus. It all started with an article published on the specialized site Vitisphère. On February 2, on this site, we could read in an article entitled, “A new study confirms that wine protects against Covid-19”.
Obviously with such a title, the article was quickly picked up on Facebook and Twitter. Some did not hide their joy while reading this article. But geneticist and president of the National Cancer League Axel Kahn put an end to the rumor. On February 4, he posted a tweet saying “Enough is enough, these people have no limits, wine protects against them and alcohol kills”.
Faced with this reaction, the site behind the publication of this article therefore decides to change the title.
Where does this hypothesis come from? This is a study published by the Taiwan Medical University on December 1 in the specialized journal American Journal of Cancer Research. These researchers found that tannic acid, especially found in grapes and wine, effectively inhibits the activity of two key enzymes in the virus and prevents it from entering cell tissue.
Tobacco last spring
But beware, the study was conducted in the laboratory and the passage to humans gives very different results. There is also no need to open a bottle when reading this article, alcohol is initially dangerous for health and secondly we find tannic acid in green tea as well, but also in fruits such as banana or raspberries.
As a reminder, all these studies remain leads. Last spring, the rumor this time concerned tobacco. A scientific study spoke of nicotine as a protective effect, results since discussed since smokers would contract more severe forms of Covid.
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