As you have probably guessed, this article is born from the idea that smokers and vapers are more likely to catch the COVID virus than people who do not engage in any sort of smoking pastime. Yet, despite the protestations of medical groups, there is no evidence that smokers and vapers are more likely to catch the disease.
What Does the British Medical Journal Say
The British Medical Journal (BMJ) isn’t as impartial as it claims to be. It has a vested interest in protecting the NHS (nationalized healthcare). With that in mind, they have made arguments saying that smokers and vapers are more likely to catch airborne diseases, such as COVID, and yet their conclusions are drawn in a very unfair manner.
Smokers Still Congregate
Social distancing is a little more difficult when smokers and vapers are stuffed into very small areas within a business or public ground. It is not like smokers and vapers are able to stand very far apart unless they are willing to spread themselves around a car park like harriers on an aircraft carrier. If smokers and vapers were not confined to such small areas, then they would be able to avoid airborne diseases as easily as the next person.
Smokers and Vapers Have Hot Breath
The act of vaping and smoking creates a lot of hot air that goes in and around the user’s mouth. This hot air denatures and kills many types of virus and bacteria. If somebody were standing near a smoker or vaper, they would be less likely to catch the disease from smoker/vaper than somebody who was not smoking/vaping.
Diseased People Do Not Smoke or Vape
There are two things that make smoking and vaping impossible. One of them is a sore throat, and the other is hiccups. Many airborne diseases, including COVID, cause coughing and a sore throat. People with a sore throat are not stood outside smoking their cigarettes or vaping from their RipStick and infecting others. In fact, if you are stood within a circle of people who are smoking, you are pretty-much guaranteed that those people do not have the COVID disease.
Fudging the Numbers
People who are vulnerable are typically older and typically have pre-existing ailments. In addition, people who smoke also tend to be older and have pre-existing ailments. Ergo, when studies show that smokers are more likely to die from COVID, they should take into account that people who are older and people who have pre-existing medical conditions are also more likely to die from COVID.
Countries that have seen massive numbers of COVID deaths, such as in China and Italy, are also stuffed with people who smoke. They have very high numbers of smokers, which again fudges the numbers. If only non-smokers were tallied, it would show that smokers and non-smokers have the same rate of infection.
Breathing Out Smoke and Diseases
A common misconception about smokers, and especially about vapers, is that their breath (smoky/steamy) carries and passes on airborne diseases like COVID. People see a big gust of smoke or steam coming from somebody’s mouth, and they see where it goes, and it makes them worried that they may breathe in the same air.
However, what people forget is that when we breathe normally, our breath takes a similar route. It is just that we cannot see where our breath goes when we exhale, suffice it to say that it takes the same route as smoke and steam when it leaves somebody’s lips.
The BMJ Does Make A Few Admissions
If you were to read most of the BMJ report on COVID and smokers/vapers, you would be reasonably worried and may avoid smoking and vaping until the COVID disease is just a distant memory. However, if you read the document from start to finish, you will actually find this line tucked away, “Definitive evidence on whether current smokers are at increased risk of disease, morbidity and mortality from covid-19 are, to our best knowledge, not yet available.” Which is a fancy way of saying that they do not know if smokers and vapers are more likely to die from COVID.
As mentioned earlier, there are always going to be people who target and victimize smokers and vapers, but it is up to you to keep an open mind and to examine the evidence and be critical of other people’s analysis and conclusions regarding the evidence.
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