However, since the outbreak in January, Chinese internet users have engaged in a massive, trenched dispute over the role TCM can play in preventing and treating lethal, infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Meanwhile, heated discussions occur among friends, colleagues, and even family members, local media reported.

Some insist TCM is incapable of preventing and curing acute and infectious diseases and can be helpful only in case of chronic diseases. Some hold that TCM therapies are mostly inconsistent and unstable in terms of effectiveness and safety. Some believe TCM drugs "only have a placebo effect" on COVID-19 patients. Still some even go so far as to label TCM as "pseudo-science" or "witchcraft".