I distinctly remember this fact very early on in 2020 and thought it was pretty interesting. I am actually shocked that this inconvenient truth has been completely buried.
The great Covid and smoking cover-up?
141–150 of 248 posts
Re: The great Covid and smoking cover-up?
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was apparent very early that there were spread patterns only explainable by aerosols. The Diamond Princess was the earliest publicized example, with cases occurring onboard despite isolation in cabins. Japanese experts understood the lesson immediately and implemented a "three C's" approach to counter airborne spread: avoid close contact, closed spaces, and crowds. Western governments and experts and the WHO inste…
This is true but a more subtle distinction about size of droplet. If the virus spread primarily by aerosols then cloth and surgical masks would have little preventative value. But we know that they do have preventative value. The reality as understood today is a mix of droplet sizes. Larger droplets carry more load and hence more risk but work over a smaller radius. But smaller droplets can carry enough load to infec…
Not so. Surgical masks still filter about 50-60% of aerosols. They are made of similar material to N95 masks, only issue is fit.
A 50-60% reduction has substantial effects! There's been a lot of "perfect is the enemy of the good, and the good is useless" in this pandemic, but we know that 100% of people do not get instantly infected when exposed, so dropping levels by half will have a substantial impact, especially if the infected source wears such a mask too
Re: The great Covid and smoking cover-up?
#143> would have been enough to alarm Zuckerberg’s minions If you're not going to write the article seriously, I'm not going to the article read seriously.
Probably not the article to comment on then.
Re: The great Covid and smoking cover-up?
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was apparent very early that there were spread patterns only explainable by aerosols. The Diamond Princess was the earliest publicized example, with cases occurring onboard despite isolation in cabins. Japanese experts understood the lesson immediately and implemented a "three C's" approach to counter airborne spread: avoid close contact, closed spaces, and crowds. Western governments and experts and the WHO inste…
While it took way way way too long for the scientific community to recognize airborne spread, it's hard to say that stuff like Diamond Princess could ONLY be explained by airborne spread. It was early in the pandemic, the disease was poorly understood. It's hard to know if the quarantine was effective--passengers could have continued socializing, sick workers distributing food may have been spreading it, etc. It's a…
Ok, best explained. If you had no prior bias, airborne spread was most likely cause for Diamond Princess pattern. Western society and WHO had a 100 year prior bias against accepting that respiratory diseases spread via the air.
It all comes back to the victory of germ theory over miasma theory. Germ theory is accurate but people got overzealous. Not all germs need be fomites.
Re: The great Covid and smoking cover-up?
#145Having read the article and the comments here, I feel like we're missing the main point. The point of the article wasn't actually about smoking. At least that's not what I took from it. I also don't think the author is genuinely claiming there's a conspiracy here. Instead, what I took from it, is that being a scientist does not mean you're immune to prejudicial opinion, and that the scientific community is not immune…
You did a great job of summing up what I felt after reading the article and then reading comments here. I've lived long enough to see things that folks have pointed out get scorched by naysayers and later confirmed to be true.
One example that's stuck with me over the years is where Monarch Butterflies spend the winter. When I was growing up we were told "No one knows", and that was true. Then, in the 1970s, some guy and his girlfriend, who were not scientists, (Kenneth C. Brugger & Catalina Aguado) announced they'd found out where they migrate, high up in the mountains in Mexico, and they were immediately trashed by "professionals" who were quoted in the "News".
At time it seemed very odd to me that they were so quickly and harshly dismissed by the "experts" who hadn't been able to find or confirm where they went.
I prefer to keep an open mind, and in this case it's not a huge leap for me to believe there may be something to this. I wouldn't recommend folks start smoking tobacco but it's worth more study.
There is still vastly more that we don't know than we do know about biology here on earth and that will be the case for at least a very long time and quite possibly, and most likely, our entire human existence.
Re: The great Covid and smoking cover-up?
#146I immediately check out whenever someone says "Google it and see what comes up" as "evidence" proving some conspiracy. Also, this is weird hill to die on. This dude has amassed a mega-blog post with a ton of aggregated studies - it's not a small amount of work. Anecdotally my only family member who regularly smokes just got COVID.
The author has spent his entire career attacking anti-smoking campaigns both as an author and the reason why the Institute for Economic Affairs was Big Tobacco's favourite think tank, so assembling this sort of list of "evidence" is par for the course for him. Back in the day when "long COVID" was an unknown phenomenon and vaccines a dim and distant dream, the medical profession had already spotted the interesting co…
That would be wild if a treatment to long covid is smoking tobacco or nicotine patches. Mostly because no sane doctor would think to try that.
How long did you try them for? I would imagine it would take awhile for your body to get acclimated to it for effects to take on. 4-6 weeks+
Re: The great Covid and smoking cover-up?
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
And they would have been right.
No they wouldn't. Smoking gives a little protection against infection, but once you have it it's likely much worse. Vaccines give you a little protection against infection and also reduce the probability of severe courses of illness.
50-68% more protection which is better than the vaccine. And it did provide better outcomes when patients were treated with patches in the hospital.
Re: The great Covid and smoking cover-up?
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
Equally we have many studies showing that vitamin D helps to reduce risk from covid (hint: it doesn't). More studies show that ivermectin has a positive effect in covid patients. In fact, ivermectin has no effect or has only a very weak effect in certain patients. In medicine observational studies suffer from certain problems that are hard to overcome. The biggest is that the groups are not equal. For example, smoker…
It’s easy to be confidently wrong with statistics. Ivermectin improves outcomes in a hospital setting… but only in developing nations. There’s two confounding effects there! One, you have to be sick enough to be treated in hospital and two, living in a place with high levels of endemic parasite infections. Ivermectin treats parasites. Parasites are helped by the steroids given for severe infections. Treating the para…
> Ivermectin improves outcomes in a hospital setting… but only in developing nations.
Precisely. The only studies I could find that were well done and did show correlation were in developing nations. Turns out that having parasites + a severe viral infection can be bad for you.
However, most intestinal parasites are cleared with a much lighter regimen that many ivermectin advocates were suggesting, some with megadoses that are harmful to the liver. There are other dewormers that are much better - some are even single dose.
Re: The great Covid and smoking cover-up?
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the most likely outcome is for a certain subset of the population to think “I don’t need to get vaccinated, I smoke cigarettes.”
And they would have been right.
It seems controversial even saying this, and a bit absurd… But I am a heavy smoker and have somehow managed to dodge Covid so far. It is probably coincidence, but I would love it to be studied into more no matter how inconvenient it may be…
Re: The great Covid and smoking cover-up?
#150I immediately check out whenever someone says "Google it and see what comes up" as "evidence" proving some conspiracy. Also, this is weird hill to die on. This dude has amassed a mega-blog post with a ton of aggregated studies - it's not a small amount of work. Anecdotally my only family member who regularly smokes just got COVID.
> Anecdotally my only family member who regularly smokes just got COVID. I’ve never had Covid either despite repeated close contact with others who’ve had it I smoked for 9 months over 35 years ago but I think it’s safe to say I’d be classed as a non-smoker
"I’ve never had Covid either"
That you know of. Like many infections, not everyone develops symptoms.