With help mostly still out of reach in the United States, some Americans are taking matters into their own hands—even as misinformation looms.

But the science is very much still out on using stem cells to treat lingering coronavirus symptoms. “Some people think, how could it not help individuals with COVID or Long COVID?” Dr. Leigh Turner, a professor of public health at University of California, Irvine who holds an appointment at the UCI stem cell center, told The Daily Beast. “I don’t feel as optimistic. There’s a plausible biological hypothesis there, but you know, it’s the difference between acknowledging that point and actually coming up with something that’s really effective in individuals in ICUs, for example, with serious lung damage or [who] have Long COVID.”