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In this Sunday, March 1, 2020 photo, a police vehicle disinfects streets against the coronavirus, in Tehran, Iran. Local media reported Thursday, March 26, 2020, that nearly 300 people have been killed and more than 1,000 sickened by ingesting toxic methanol across the Islamic Republic out of the false belief it kills the new coronavirus. That's as messages forwarded through social media on people surviving the virus by drinking whiskey and using alcohol-based hand sanitizer somehow saw people seek out bootleg liquor in Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

In this Sunday, March 1, 2020 photo, a police vehicle disinfects streets against the coronavirus, in Tehran, Iran. Local media reported Thursday, March 26, 2020, that nearly 300 people have been killed and more than 1,000 sickened by ingesting toxic methanol across the Islamic Republic out of the false belief it kills the new coronavirus. That's as messages forwarded through social media on people surviving the virus by drinking whiskey and using alcohol-based hand sanitizer…

March 27, 2020

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In Iran, false belief a poison fights virus kills hundreds
March 27, 2020 3:27 a.m.

In Iran, false belief a poison fights virus kills hundreds

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Standing over the still body of an intubated 5-year-old boy wearing nothing but a plastic diaper, an Iranian health care worker in a hazmat suit and mask begged the public for just one thing: Stop drinking industrial alcohol over fears about the new coronavirus.