Smoking during the pandemic - are more smokers quitting?
Friday, October 23, 2020 at 9:48 New research suggests that ‘Twice as many people in England quit smoking during lockdown than before the coronavirus emerged.’
Full story here.
I’ve no idea whether this is true and, to be clear, I’ve no problem with smokers quitting if it’s their choice based on accurate information about the risks of smoking.
If smokers are giving up because of Covid-inspired scaremongering that’s a different matter, but it’s still their choice, I suppose.
If I was a smoker I’d read the evidence about smoking and Covid-19 - the good and the bad - and decide for myself. I wouldn’t change my behaviour based on a few tobacco control inspired headlines.
I also recognise that many smokers may face other challenges or restrictions during the coronavirus (including loss of income) so it’s not just about health.
Meanwhile ASH continue to insist that a million people have quit smoking during the pandemic.
It’s impossible to know, at this stage, whether they are right. We will probably have to wait until next summer when the Office for National Statistics publish the latest figures.
(According to the last estimate, published in July, ‘In the UK, in 2019, 14.1% of people aged 18 years and above smoked cigarettes, which equates to around 6.9 million people in the population.’)
In the meantime I am posting the tweet below so I can refer back to it. If ASH is correct, I’ll be the first to tip my hat to their extraordinarily accurate research (and ability with a calculator).
Why do I have a sneaking suspicion, though, that the ONS figures for 2020 will present a somewhat different picture?
PS. A thought just occurred to me.
If it is true that twice as many smokers quit during lockdown compared to before lockdown, tobacco control may have stumbled upon a way to meet its target of making England ‘smoke-free’ by 2030.
All the Government has to do is confine smokers to their own homes and prohibit any mixing with other households for the next ten years.
Home visits will be allowed (face masks worn at all times by both parties) but strictly no smoking while anyone else is in the house or on the premises.
That should do it.
Reader Comments (3)
Don't give them ideas to punish us even more for refusing the political demand to quit smoking.
As for the million quitters during Covid, we all know that ASH follows the rule of tell a lie often enough it becomes the truth.
Only when you compare their over inflated figures side by side, it is clear to see that their propaganda does not add up.
The 'evidence' on smoking prevalence provided by antismoking activists over the years is dubious. They consistently claim victory when the want to demonstrate success for thier efforts and the--often within weeks—claim smoking rates are on the rise to justify additional funding. The same manipulation of data is used to advocate and justify smoking bans.
Anecdotal evidence suggests many have embraced smoking to help cope with the stresses of the Covid-19 lockdowns. Other evidence suggests tobacco control activists have suppressed evidence that smokers may derive a protective benefit against Covid. Of course the antismoking activists suppress that. After all they surpassed the empirical evidence that second hand smoke was significantly less harmful (essentially harmless under normal ventilation and outdoors) because it endangered their antismoking initiatives. There is little evidence-based tobacco control data published if that data does not support the accepted tobacco control position.
Vinny, they may find this piece of evidence awkward.
Nitric oxide a new treatment option for COVID-19
5 Oct 2020
“Researchers at Uppsala University have noted that an effective way of treating the coronavirus that caused the 2003 SARS epidemic also works on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The substance is nitric oxide (NO), a compound that has antiviral properties and is produced by the body itself. The study is published in the journal Redox Biology. “To our knowledge, nitric oxide is the only substance shown so far to have a direct effect on SARS-CoV-2,” says Åke Lundkvist, a professor at Uppsala University, who led the study.
https://medicaldialogues.in/pulmonology/news/nitric-oxide-a-new-treatment-option-for-covid-19-70172
Nitric oxide a new treatment option for COVID-19
5 Oct 2020
“Researchers at Uppsala University have noted that an effective way of treating the coronavirus that caused the 2003 SARS epidemic also works on the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The substance is nitric oxide (NO), a compound that has antiviral properties and is produced by the body itself.The study is published in the journal Redox Biology. “To our knowledge, nitric oxide is the only substance shown so far to have a direct effect on SARS-CoV-2,” says Åke Lundkvist, a professor at Uppsala University, who led the study.
https://medicaldialogues.in/pulmonology/news/nitric-oxide-a-new-treatment-option-for-covid-19-70172
Nitric oxide yields of contemporary UK, US and French cigarettes
1987
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3570619/
Of course, in 1987 they didn't realise that nitric oxide was also made by our own immune system.