The governor of Nairobi is putting Hennessy in residents' coronavirus care packages
Alongside household staples like hand sanitizer, maize, rice, and diapers, residents of Nairobi will be receiving small bottles of Hennessy cognac in their government-issued coronavirus care packages, CNN reports. Mike Sonko, the governor of the Kenyan capital, justified the distribution of Hennessy by calling it a "throat sanitizer" and falsely claiming it is "believed that alcohol plays a major role in killing the coronavirus."
Experts, though, say drinking alcohol can actually make your immune system weaker, and leave you more vulnerable to contracting COVID-19. "Please completely ignore clowning of a major global pandemic taking lives & putting extreme pressure on households," tweeted Githinji Gitahi, the CEO of Amref Health Africa. "Dump [the Hennessy] the way you would dump your used #COVID19 #mask — never to be recovered!"
Hennessy additionally urged home-remedy seekers not to chug cognac, telling Nairobi News in a statement that, alas, "the consumption of our brand or any other alcoholic beverage does not protect against the virus."
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