With a surge in COVID-19 cases in India, there has been a rise in misinformation and fake news around the crisis. Recently, several media reports quoting a CSIR survey went viral on social media. According to the articles, the survey found that vegetarians and smokers are less vulnerable to COVID-19. Turns out, this is false.

Press Information Bureau (PIB) has fact-checked the media reports that no conclusion can be drawn based on the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR’s) serological studies that vegetarian diet and smoking may prevent COVID-19.  

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In a tweet, PIB wrote on Monday, ”Media reports claim that @CSIR_IND survey reveals smokers & vegetarians are less vulnerable to #COVID19 #PIBFactCheck: Presently, NO conclusion can be drawn based on the serological studies that vegetarian diet & smoking may protect from #COVID19.”

CSIR, too, clarified in a statement said that it has not issued any press note regarding this claim. 

“The negative association with smoking has been reported elsewhere, but not shown to be causal. Further exploration is necessary before reaching any conclusions, especially since seropositivity is an imperfect marker of infection risk and may equally well be explained by altered antibody response and dynamics,” it said.