Mohanan Nair alias Mohanan Vaidyar, a self-proclaimed naturopath in Kerala, died after collapsing at a relative's house in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. He was 65 years old. On testing, it was found that Mohanan Vaidyar was positive for coronavirus, said the staff at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, where his body was shifted to. Mathrubhumi reports his relatives telling the police that Mohanan Vaidyar had fever and breathing difficulties since Saturday morning.
Mohanan Vaidyar, who was often involved in controversies regarding the treatment of viral diseases, was arrested last year after he claimed that he could cure COVID-19. He was also arrested in October 2019 for allegedly misdiagnosing the skin disease of a minor patient and offering wrong treatment. He had argued since the time of the Nipah virus outbreak of 2018 that there is no such thing as the Nipah virus. He had claimed then that he ate fruits eaten by bats, believed to be the carriers of Nipah, to prove that the Nipah virus did not exist.
A native of Kottarakkara, Mohanan Vaidyar had been living in Cherthala of Alappuzha district for many years. He had a treatment centre at Krishnapuram Grama Panchayat in Alappuzha, which was closed down by panchayat officials in 2019 after a probe into his practice, without employing trained doctors. Vaidyar had also run an Ayurveda clinic at Pattikad in Thrissur.
Among the several cases against him was a charge of causing the death of a one-and-a-half-year-old child who had metabolic disorder propionic acidemia, by providing unscientific treatment. Another case was for spreading stories that the Nipah virus was a conspiracy of the health department and medicine companies. A third case led to his arrest in 2020 after he allegedly offered pseudo treatment for COVID-19. He had since been banned from practising medicine. However, as recently as May 18, he had posted another video on YouTube on how to overcome the present scenario.