We all rolled our eyes when the next, best and latest craze for curing Covid swam to the surface of the fetid mud puddle which GQPers call home. Drink your own urine and you will magically survive. Whaaa? Where are they coming from with this and where are they going?
Going? I have no idea. I work with people who believe at least half of this stuff and they are good people. Earnest, hardworking, usually kind.
Coming from though -there's precedent. There's always been a kernel of fact in each of their ideas and this is no different.
I first learned about drinking your own urine in the nineties, but the practice is old. Either for survival or as a cure-all for general health, people drank and drink urine. Urine is actually a sterile product when it exits the body, only picking up bacteria or dirt afterwards (like milk). Morning urine is supposed to be the best, as it is highly concentrated.
Any bookseller carries multiple books on the topic. Look up "Urine Therapy! Confessions Of A Mad Pee Drinker,” by PP Powers, or "The Water of Life: A Treatise on Urine Therapy,” by JW Armstrong. (I am not endorsing either, these are just random). It supposedly cures fibromyalgia, dandruff, IBS and more and is likened to composting.
There is also a strong scientific background for using urine. Check out this article from the Smithsonian "We Used to Recycle Drugs From Patients’ Urine,” and "The medicinal use of urine,” WH Hörl, American Journal of Nephrology 1999; 19(2):111-113.
Also, in the nineties there was a lot of research done isolating organically active peptides which might become new drugs. My Uni friend in Hannover Germany isolated a peptide from urine for her PhD which was possibly useful for heart disease. I lost track of her, so I don't know where it went but back then many scientists were looking for the next get-rich score where their discovery could be sold to a pharmaceutical company. Maybe they do it today still, I've been out of research for awhile.
Even the compound urea, first isolated from urine in 1773 CE, is now produced commercially and can be found in numerous topical ointments, such as Flexitol Heel Balm. (I do use this)
So as off-base as the “Urine Drinkers against Covid” seem to be, they really haven’t gone that far afield. Maybe someone will do a study someday on whether urine really improves Covid infection outcomes.
Still, I think that I’ll stick with my shot and let someone else experiment with their own pee. It’s a free country, after all.