NICE has claimed that it has developed an Ayush Ministry approved protocol for coronavirus treatment

The government on Thursday strongly rebuffed claims made by the Network of Influenza Care Experts (NICE) that it has developed an Ayush Ministry approved protocol for Covid-19 treatment.

“Some misleading claims have been made by a naturopathy related network NICE and have been published by some media platforms without journalistic verification,” the Ayush Ministry said.

By making such claims, NICE has indulged in an unethical, illegal and baseless act in claiming to have developed an Ayush Ministry approved naturopathy-based protocol for COVID-19 treatment, the Ministry said.

“Equally serious is its act of using the name of the Ministry without Ministry’s explicit permission,” it added.

It further clarified that the said agency, NICE, has not submitted any application for the so-called protocol to the Ministry of Ayush.

“If any proposal related to COVID-19 treatment/management is submitted to the Ministry by NICE, it will get it thoroughly examined by the Interdisciplinary Technical Review Committee (ITRC). The committee has a well-established and rigorous scientific screening process for such validation,” the Ministry of Ayush release informed.

Without the approval of this committee, no Ayush streams related agency can claim to have developed a protocol, it clarified.

Warning against the consequences of making such misleading claims by any entity, the Ayush Ministry mentioned, NICE like false claims fall under punishable offence according to order no. 40-3/2020-DM-II (A), dated 24th March 2020 of the Ministry of Home Affairs and order no. 1-29/2020-pp (Pt II), dated 24th March, 2020 of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

“These orders make false claims as a punishable offence so as to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Some media organisations have published the false claim made by NICE without verifying the facts from the Ministry of Ayush,” it explained.

Earlier, the National Institute of Naturopathy (NIN) Pune had clearly said that the Network of Influenza Care Expert (NICE) has made some tall and misleading claims regarding management of COVID-19.

“The claim is regarding management/treatment of COVID-19 and NICE has wrongly attributed approval of its said protocol by the Ministry of Ayush,” it argued.

The release further emphasized that NIN, Pune, working under the auspices of the Ministry of Ayush, has- already clarified in the local media that it not only strictly adheres by the guidelines prescribed by the Ministry of Home Affairs for the management, treatment and prevention of COVID-19 but also promotes these guidelines through IEC material and various activities.