Adverts falsely claiming that IV drips can prevent coronavirus are being banned

The Advertising Standards Authority has been banned four adverts about IV drips which have reportedly made misleading claims about coronavirus.

Two adverts for the drip have appeared on the websites for the company REVIV and the London-based The Private Harley Street Clinic. The other two adverts appeared on Instagram accounts belonging to Cosmetic Medical Advice UK employees.

The advert on REVIV's website claimed that the drip contained vitamin C and could help prevent Covid-19. According to the Huffington Post, it said:

Help protect and prevent against the new strand of virus (known as the coronavirus) with a REVIV Megaboost IV Therapy containing a high dose of vitamin C.

The advert on the Private Harley Street Clinic featured on a page title "Coronavirus, protecting you and your family from the coronavirus infection". The clinic had already landed itself in headlines after offering the public private coronavirus tests for £375.

The second set of adverts from the Cosmetic Medical Advice UK employees were shared on Instagram, firstly by Dr Rita Rakus and then in an Instagram story by Dr Galyna Selezneva, claiming that the IV drip could boost immunity.

The Rakus post featured the doctor on the IV drip and also claimed that it could boost immunity. The posts have since been deleted with the clinic adding that they did not intend to make the drips look like they could prevent Covid-19.

Picture: Instagram

REVIV added in response to the ASA's demands that the posts were a response to a question about vitamin C, stating; "[The adverts] written in response to customer queries about vitamin C, and it was intended to be purely educational".

The ASA had banned the adverts for making "unlicensed medicinal claims" and that their investigations were part of an effort for "prioritising and tackling ads that exploit health-related anxieties during the crisis".

Facebook has already moved to prevent misinformation about the virus being spread on its website by redirecting people to the World Health Organisation, while also banning any posts in the United States about anti-lockdown protests.