7 Min Read PARA STATE, Brazil (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In the middle of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, far from the laboratories of the world’s major pharmaceutical companies, the Kayapó indigenous people of Para state are using a drink made from vines to help them ward off the worst effects of COVID-19. As incursions into the Amazon by illegal loggers and miners have increased during the pandemic, potentially exposing forest-dwelling tribes to the virus, the Kayapó say their natural treatment is helping to keep them safe. The skin of the vine - the name of which the community is keeping secret - is boiled and strained into a tea which is drunk three times a day, for five days, explained Po Yre, a 23-year-old member of the Kayapó community from Pykany village.