Posted on 04/26/2020 12:31:32 PM PDT by Bruiser 10
There’s not much to laugh about these days, but the news that smokers might be protected from Covid-19 is certainly one of them. With study after study showing that smokers are under-represented in coronavirus wards, the renowned French neuroscientist, Jean-Pierre Changeux, is working on a randomised control trial to test the effect of nicotine patches on Covid-19 patients.
This is far from being a crackpot theory. Changeux has explained his hypothesis at length here. In simple terms, he says that nicotinic acetylcholine receptors play a key role in the development of the disease and that nicotine can put a brake on it. If he is right – and the banter heuristic says he is – it would not only save thousands of lives but would also be one in the eye for the ‘public health’ groups who have been claiming that smoking and vaping are risk factors for Covid-19.
These groups are so used to lying with impunity that they wasted no time in asserting that smoking caused coronavirus complications when the pandemic began. In the US, newspapers have been filled with reports that smokers and vapers ‘may’ be at greater risk from Covid-19, a weasel word that requires no evidence. A group of doctors in New York urged governor Andrew Cuomo to ban the sale of all tobacco and e-cigarette products on the false premise that ‘mounting evidence demonstrates the link between tobacco use and increased risk for progressive Covid-19’. Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has been taking occasional breaks from flattering the Chinese Communist Party to make evidence-free assertions about smokers being ‘likely’ to suffer more from the coronavirus.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiked-online.com ...
“common sense” ...
LOL!
“Yes. Smokers do worse. That is a fact. This article is about a study of the effect of nicotine patches, which is way different than smoking/inhaling carcinogens.”
You obviously didn’t read the article. It lists several studies, completed and ongoing, all of which show smokers are much less likely to get CV. And the ones who did, were NOT worse off than non smokers.
Non-smokera do worse. Rtfa.
From the article:
“Awkwardly for the anti-smoking lobby, smokers have been strangely under-represented in all the studies for which smoking prevalence data is available. They made up just 1.4 per cent of the cases in Zhang et al, 6.7 per cent in Wan et al, 3.9 per cent in Mo et al, seven per cent in Huang et al, nine per cent in Dong et al, 10 per cent of cases in Yang et al, 1.9 per cent in Guan et al, six per cent in Zhou et al, and 6.4 per cent in Liu et al. In Shi et al, only 8.2 per cent of cases had any smoking history.”
In the above paragraph from the article, are hotlinks to TEN studies showing smokers are less affected. Argue with them, and stop lying.
“Funny that your first two links don’t even say that. COPD is not vaping, not proven to be vaping-related.
I didn’t even bother with looking at the other two.”
The third re-links to a Wuhan study. I just read it, and could not find the smoker reference it alluded to. So it doesn’t support dynoman’s “smoking bad!” bs either.
Not odd for a person who quits smoking to have a period of increased colds and other maladies.
“Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure.”
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fast_facts/index.htm
But you act like smoking is going to save people from covid.
Pretty dumb.
“But you act like smoking is going to save people from covid.”
No, I’m saying I believe smoking is going to save people from dying from Covid. That’s the premise of the article, and it supports itself with 10 hotlinks to studies showing exactly that. It convinced me.
You may not like it. It’s clear you are a vehement anti-smoker. That’s fine. But ignoring the evidence and refusing to accept the conclusion, well, I can’t help you with that.
Critical Thinking is a skill that must be learned and practiced to master. It takes awhile to become someone willing to go where the evidence leads, and a truly advanced mind to change a hard-held opinion based on the evidence, not a feeling. Keep trying; perhaps you will get there one day. You’re obviously not there now.
Well developed critical thinking is you reading a Chinese study and concluding “No, I’m saying I believe smoking is going to save people from dying from Covid.” in spite of other articles indicating the opposite.
OK, LOL!
What does your well developed and superior critical thinking skills tell you about this article??
“We identified five studies that reported data on the smoking status of patients infected with COVID-19. Notably, in the largest study that assessed severity, there were higher percentages of current and former smokers among patients that needed ICU support, mechanical ventilation or who had died, and a higher percentage of smokers among the severe cases12. However, from their published data we can calculate that the smokers were 1.4 times more likely (RR=1.4, 95% CI: 0.98–2.00) to have severe symptoms of COVID-19 and approximately 2.4 times more likely to be admitted to an ICU, need mechanical ventilation or die compared to non-smokers (RR=2.4, 95% CI: 1.43–4.04).
In conclusion, although further research is warranted as the weight of the evidence increases, with the limited available data, and although the above results are unadjusted for other factors that may impact disease progression, smoking is most likely associated with the negative progression and adverse outcomes of COVID-19.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7083240/
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