Skip to content

Monday, Oct. 26, 2020

Does evidence suggest that green tea extract can prevent COVID-19?

Esther Tsvayg, Gigafact
no

On its own, green tea extract has not been found to prevent infection by the coronavirus or to provide effective therapy against the COVID-19 disease resulting from an infection.

The extract contains a micronutrient, epigallocatechin gallate, that has shown promise in acting against some other viruses. A study published in June concluded that the chemical could be a candidate for further evaluation for use against the coronavirus. No research so far has proved its efficacy against the coronavirus.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

See all fact briefs

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

Learn More

Latest Fact Briefs

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.