Webqoof: No, Tissue Paper is Not Being Sold as Cheap Tablets

Don’t be a webqoof! That compressed tissue paper tablet is just that, a tissue paper.

Don’t believe that WhatsApp forward you are getting on your family groups that claims tissue paper is being sold as low cost medicine.

A video has been doing the rounds of social media and has gone viral. In the video a person is seen taking out a tablet from a strip that looks like the medicine strips you get in the market. The tablet unravels into a tissue paper. The man, speaking in Oriya, says that there is no manufacturing date, name of the tablet or any other detail at the back of the strip. Only the company name Zota is printed.

A version of a similar video is posted on Facebook with a warning to take care.

On investigation, fact-checking website Boom found another version of the video (pasted below) on Facebook in which the voiceover of the man has been replaced with music and the graphics read, ‘Too comfortable tissue paper available in China market.’

These videos had first gone viral in Odisha in 2017. At the time, local news websites had debunked the video, suggesting that the video was a result of a misunderstanding.

Dr PK Panda, a practitioner form the Bolangir District in Odisha, had prescribed compressed wipes to two women who came to him in a weak state. He also prescribed some medicines along with the wipes. Dr Panda claims the women may have mixed up the two. In another interview with Odisha TV, Dr Panda admitted that he may have mistakenly passed on the sample wipes to the women as medicine.

Boom TV investigated this further. Upon spotting the brand name Zota on the packaging, they got in touch with Zota Healthcare Ltd. Himanshu Zota, a director in the company, told them that these were compressed wipes and not tablets, and they had distributed these to doctors are part of a promotional plan.

Tissue Tablets Not Uncommon

Tissue tablets are actually quite popular and easy to buy online. These tablets are also given in several restaurants to customers. Simply pouring some water on them does the magic. The tablet unravels into a tissue.

Watch a video right here!

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(This story was first published on Boom and has been republished with permission.)