Only last week Luhut Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s maritime minister and close confidant of the country’s president, touted herbal mangosteen juice as a coronavirus remedy.
His suggestion was the latest in a string of unorthodox treatments put forward by the president’s Cabinet over the past six months, ranging from prayer to rice wrapped in banana leaves to eucalyptus necklaces.
The remedies reflect the unscientific approach to battling the coronavirus in the world’s fourth-most populous country, where the rate of testing is among the world’s lowest, contact tracing is minimal, and authorities have resisted lockdowns even as infections spiked.
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