“It’s all anecdote, and fake news off the anecdotes,” said Dr. Garret FitzGerald, chair of the department of pharmacology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “That’s the world we are living in.”

“Until there is evidence, there is no reason at all to be issuing public health guidance” about Nsaids and the coronavirus, he added.

There are reasons to worry about long-term, heavy use of Nsaids, which have been linked an increased risk of kidney damage in some patients. People taking blood thinners also should avoid Nsaids.

But for infectious disease specialists, the greater concern is that when Nsaids and acetaminophen reduce fever, patients may be more comfortable but their lower temperatures can short-circuit the body’s main defense against infection.

Studies have found that if people infected with a variety of viruses and other microorganisms bring their fevers down, with Nsaids or with acetaminophen, their symptoms may last longer and they continue to shed virus for a longer time — meaning they may be contagious for longer periods.

“Everything that walks, flies, crawls or swims on the face of this earth makes fever,” said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious disease expert at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Even lizards, he added, which crawl to the top of rocks and sun themselves when they are ill to bring their temperatures up.

The immune system works better when the body’s temperature is higher, enabling it to more efficiently kill viruses and bacteria. Dozens of studies — in animals, reptiles and humans — have found that fever is beneficial in fighting infections.