Chris Whitty - a Telegraph reader writes

Further to yesterday’s post about Chris Whitty (which I will come back to) I was invited to discuss the Chief Medical Officer’s intemperate attack on the ‘cigarette industry’ with Vanessa Feltz on TalkTV.

I’ll post a transcript of what I said later. In the meantime, here’s a letter from today’s Telegraph. H/T Madeline Grant via Twitter.

Comments

[Rose2]

I found an interesting reply to that letter.in the comments.

V E Curry

"Regarding the letter on smoking, my father-in-law, a surgeon, used to say that if the medical profession stopped smoking there would be a lot of nervous breakdowns among them. This was said in the sixties when cancer and smoking were first linked, but it seems that while smoking has been reduced, mental illness has increased. I appreciate that the latter is now talked about more freely but maybe the subject deserves research?"

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/11/05/letters-fresh-focus-nuclear-power-key-boosting-britains-energy/

The research has already been done, it seems to be 2,3,6-trimethyl-1,4-naphthoquinone. which is an MOA inhibiter found during Parkinsons research and was acknowledged by the WHO, which immediately passed it of as something to do with nicotine addiction.

Why the Wicked Weed Wards Off Parkinsons

"Researchers have known for decades that smokers are less likely to develop Parkinson’s than non-smokers, but not why. Four years ago, however, Joanna Fowler of Brookhaven National laboratory in New York showed that in long-term smokers a brain enzyme called monoamine oxidase (MAO) is 40 per cent less active."

“Intrigued by these findings, Kay and Neal Castagnoli and a team at the Harvey W. Peters Research Center at Virginia Tech set out to identify substances in smoke that inhibit the enzyme. They isolated a compound that blocks MAO’s activity in the test tube, and found that it protected mice from the poisonous effects of MPTP, one of the substances that MAO converts into a toxin, they told the meeting.”
newscientist.com/article/mg16622332.000

It's a natural antidepressant but not one that drugs company sell.

[Rose2]

I always wondered why they gave wounded soldiers a cigarette after a battle.
Now you can see the antidepressant effect of a cigarette on a soldier most nights when you turn on the news.

Anti tobacco science seems to work in reverse, it only ever makes sense when you hold it up to a mirror and read it backwards.